One Last Happily Ever After
by Koharu Veddette
Summary: After Maeve's death, Reid never thought he would be happy again until his friends bring in a psychologist for him to talk to that just might end up saving him from himself. How can this little Southern Belle out psycho analyze one Dr. Spencer Reid so easily? I promise you she is not as Sue as she sounds, I'm just bad at summaries. You decide what curveball happens to them each cha!
1. Chapter 1

**This starts after the episode _Alchemy _and continues on through the series. This is my first real Criminal Minds fic and I probably won't update too often, but I hope you stick with me. Please review if you have any ideas or questions since I don't have too much planned out other than this being a fic of Reid finally getting some happiness in his life. **

_Oh my dear eagle,_

_Like a lightning bolt_

_You struck this_

_Sweet peacock_

"Excuse me," a tall woman said as she strode into the bullpen of the local FBI station. She had a slip of paper in her pale hand that had told her to come to this police station to help with some kind of case. She was confused as to why she was called to help the police when she was only a child psychologist. An officer stopped to help the confused woman and directed her towards the back of the station. The thick black heels of her thigh high boots thumped against the tile floor as she crossed the bullpen to the small room. She pulled her thick brown hair behind her ear as she peaked her head into the room to see a tearful blonde woman and a tall black haired man.

"Ah, um," she nervously said, glancing down at the slip of paper before she stepped into the room. "Is there an Aaron Hotchner here?"

"That would be me," the tall man said, turning his stern gaze on her. "Who might you be?"

"Dr. Eglantine Schaffer," the woman introduced with a small smile as she shook back her long sleeve so she could shake his hand. "There was a call to my office that you needed my help?"

"That's right," Aaron nodded as he motioned to a seat at the table. Eglantine slowly sat and nervously crossed her legs and fidgeted with her skirt. She had never been good with authority, respected authority, but never good with them. "It had come to our understanding that you have been recently opened up a clinic for abused children in the area."

"Yessir," Eglantine nodded, her Southern accident slipping out due to her nervousness. She had recently moved up north after her thirtieth birthday so she could finally pursue her dream of having a youth home. It was still new and she was still trying to make connections with the schools, so it was strange that the FBI already knew about it. "The Flower Garden is mine. How can I help you sir?"

Hotch looked over at the blonde woman for a moment before he looked at Eglantine again.

"We have an understanding that you have a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology," he said to her slowly, making her nod in confirmation. She was highly confused as to why he had taken such an interest in her, but tried to smile and think nothing of it. "We have someone we want you to take a look at."

Eglantine frowned for a moment before she smiled brightly. She really was happy to be helping a child and, if the FBI is involved, the child must have some trouble that she definitely wanted to get rid of.

"I'll take a look at them. Where is the little Sweet Pea?" Eglantine said as she stood happily from the chair, adjusting her low cut dress so it was a bit more child appropriate. Hotch looked at the blonde woman with an amused look before he turned to guide Eglantine from the room. She looked around curiously as he led her down the hall to a room right off the hall.

"This her?" a muscular, dark colored man asked when they entered the room. Eglantine looked around in wonder at how many computers filled the room. Sitting closest to the computers was a large set blonde woman with the dark man next to her. In a seat in the middle of the room was a lanky, light brown haired man that looked tired beyond belief. An older man and an older woman stepped away from the wall at the sight of Hotch, the blonde woman, and Eglantine walking into the room. Eglantine kept looking around in confusion, wondering where the child could be.

"Where is the little Sweet Pea?" she asked, turning back to Hotch for an answer. The dark man almost burst into laughter at her words, making her turn to him in confusion.

"I'm telling you guys, I don't need to talk to anyone," the youngest man said from his chair in the middle of the room. "I'm fine now that I have sleep."

"You're the one I'm here to talk to?" Eglantine said in confusion, frowning as she turned to the young man. She looked up at Hotchner with a sad smile. "I'm sorry sir, but I'm a developmental psychologist."

"Which means?" the dark man asked, raising a black eyebrow at her.

"I work with kids and treating mental diseases in kids," Eglantine explained slowly, looking up at Hotch with a somewhat pained expression. "I know little more about the adult brain than a general psychology student other than what an adult brain can look like after childhood problems."

"So you can't help Pretty Boy here?" the dark man asked, narrowing his eyes at her. Eglantine shook her head and sighed softly.

"I-I can try," Eglantine said, hating to leave someone unhelped when she could try. "What exactly is wrong?"

"This is Dr. Spencer Reid," the older man introduced, receiving Eglantine's slow and confused nod. "He has an eidetic memory and it is caus-"

"Excuse me," Eglantine interrupted, biting her lip nervously as her brain raced for it to go into psychologist mode instead of her normal caregiver mode. "I know you are trying to help, but you called me here to talk to a patient, so I would like to hear straight from the patient."

"Thank you," Reid sighed, having gotten a bit frustrated by his friends' attempts to talk to her as if something is wrong with him. He felt perfectly fine and was believing that he was beginning to find closure in his dreams about Maeve, so he didn't see why they called in a psychologist. He looked up at the tall, yet somehow tiny woman before him with a frown. "There is nothing wrong with me."

"Your friends seem to have a genuine concern for you though," Eglantine said softly, nearing him with a gentle smile as she decided to treat him just like any of the teenagers she's helped. She paused before she turned to the other FBI agents in the room. "Speaking of. It is common practice for me to speak alone with patients over the age of thirteen, so would you please allow me to talk to Dr. Reid alone?"

"Are you sure we can't be here?" the dark man questioned, shooting a concerned look towards the younger man.

"Yessir," Eglantine nodded, gaining confidence among the impressive agents now that she actually had knowledge about what they were talking about. "Patients tend to lie when they know their family and friends are watching or listening in on them."

"Ok," the dark man said slowly as the agents began to slowly leave the room so the two could be alone. Once the door closed behind them, Eglantine turned back to her patient and smiled brightly.

"Let's just chat a bit and get to know each other," she said as she rolled up one of the other chairs in the room so she could sit across from him.

**Please review guys! I kinda need ideas for things to write about since I don't really know where this is going. I hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter though.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Who else was actually upset at Erin's murder? The season finale just made me want to add Dave onto the list of people who need happy endings... Anyway, enough of my personal opinions and on to the story~!**

"How are they?" Hotch asked as he strode up to Morgan and Garcia a few hours after they were told to leave their resident genius alone with the young psychologist. Morgan sighed as he stood straight from his position against the wall, a position he had been maintaining for the last two hours even after the rest of the team had gone back to their offices and desks to continue the day's work.

"Not a peep has been heard from either of them," Morgan said worriedly, glancing at Garcia's door as if he expected the two to walk out right then.

"That's not good," Hotch murmured, his eyes narrowing slightly as he also looked to the door that Garcia was pacing nervously in front of. The plump woman clearly wanted to get back to her computers even though she had promised to be the one to give up her office when the team had been discussing how they planned on making Reid talk to a professional about his problems.

"What's up?" Derek asked, knowing the tone his leader used only occurred when something bad has happened.

"Do you know the date?" Hotch said meaningfully, causing Derek to think for a moment before he realized what his boss meant.

"That nanny kidnapper," Morgan breathed in realization, doing quick math to realize that they only had a few days before the anniversary that Unsub held so dear. Morgan glanced back at Garcia's door worriedly. "Do we bring the kid with us?"

"He's the only one who doesn't have to look at files to remember everything about each of the prior victims," Hotch murmured logically, though his tone clearly showed that he did not, in fact, want to bring Reid along with them. Hotch squared his shoulders and stepped around Garcia to her door, knocking quietly on it to warn the occupants that he was coming in just in case they didn't want anything they were saying heard. He opened the door to see the two staring up at him with blank faces. Hotch was taken aback for a moment at their stoic expressions, but covered it quickly with his own stoic look. "We have a case, Reid. Wheels up in thirty."

Reid practically jumped out of his chair at his boss' words, clearly happy for a chance to escape talking to his new psychologist.

"How is he?" Hotch asked once Reid was a safe distance away and Derek and Garcia had come into the room. Eglantine sighed as she stood and shook her head slightly.

"I can see what you mean by troubled, but I couldn't get a peep out of him that wasn't some sort of fact or statistic about psychology," she murmured, rubbing her eyes tiredly from under her glasses. "Talking to patients and gaining their trust is a long process, especially if they don't want to open up to you."

She sighed again and looked up at Hotch with a sad expression. "But I have never seen anyone close up so much into themselves like he has."

"Does that mean you are unable to help us?" Hotchner asked quickly, narrowing his eyes down at her. From what he had read of her file that Garcia had dug up for him, she had a near perfect track record of getting people to open up about their problems and had great reviews from the teens and children that have come under her care. To his surprise, Eglantine smiled brilliantly up at him.

"Of course not. I'll help Dr. Reid in good time, I just have to take more time with him than I normally need to," Eglantine said cheerfully, giving him a warm and welcoming smile. "I have never dealt with such a hard nut to crack, but all shells crack with enough work and time."

Aaron nodded at the younger woman's words, thankful that she was not going to give up on helping Reid when he needed it.

"We will be gone for a few days on a case," Hotch told her as he headed back to his office with her following him so Garcia and Morgan could get Garcia settled into her office once more before they started work on their newest case. Eglantine looked around curiously as she followed the tall man, trying to get her barrings in the large, but cramped government building. Once they reached his office after passing by a bullpen of desks, Eglantine had to stop and marvel at all that the office held. Hotch turned to her so they could speak, but paused with a small amused look on his face at the sight of her looking around the room like a small child. He cleared his throat to draw her attention back to him so he could continue since they didn't have much time before he had to get his go bag and get to the jet. "Will you be free to come talk to Reid when we return?"

"About that," Eglantine said, pausing so she could word her request right. She wasn't quite sure how to ask for what she wanted since this was a government building and an FBI headquarters at that. She took a deep breath and decided just to be frank about it. "I would like to observe Dr. Reid while he is working. Discretely mind you, but still here so I can talk to all of you if I have questions. I still want to schedule times for me to talk to him, of course, but, since he is so held up within himself, I would like to observe him to get a bit of a feel for how he acts around others."

Eglantine trailed off worriedly, barely holding the gaze of the intimidating profiler before her as he stared down at her. If she had known him better, she would know that Hotch was just thinking of her request and all of the different things he had to come up with in order to get her access to the building. The stern look he was giving was more of a shield while he was thinking than actually aimed at her, he didn't want to scare off someone that could help a member of his team afterall. Hotch slowly nodded after a moment and turned to grab his go bag.

"I'll contact you with the day we should return and will have Garcia send you a badge so you can get in without another of that note," he said briskly as he turned to head through the door with her quickly following after him. "You can stay in my office or Dave's office since they overlook the bullpen and can't really be seen from bellow very well. I'll talk to Dave for you about being allowed into his office, so don't worry about that. You won't be allowed here when the team is on a case away from here, but you free to come whenever we are here. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask any of us for an answer."

He stopped and turned a small smile on the surprised woman. "And thank you for this, Miss Schaffer. You do not realize how much me and my team appreciate your help."

Eglantine was frozen at his sincere words, having never been that heartily thanked for her work before. He may not have been exuberant about it, but Eglantine could feel the love he felt for his team and how truly thankful he was for her to be there in his stoic words. It took her a moment to realize that Hotch had left and a few more moments to realize that she should probably leave too since the team of FBI profilers were leaving and she had left a volunteer in charge of her home for much longer than she had anticipated. Looking forward to Hotch's call, Eglantine sped home to prepare for helping her newest patient.

**Please let me know what you think. For now, she won't be allowed to go on cases, but eventually she will so expect some nice action to come. If you guys have any suggestions for any cases you want to see or any kind of requests for the BAU, like particular couples or scenes or something just so long as it fits into canon, feel free to let me know in a review or even a PM. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I know I keep saying that I don't really have a plan for this, but I'm really meaning that for after I finish the season. Since I don't know where the writers are going and I don't like breaking from canon except for the obvious addition of characters, I can't really tell where this is going to go once the season ends.**

"Yo, Mama Bear," an older teen called as he walked into a beautiful, three story Victorian style home. The teen himself was extremely tall and tended to have to duck in the shorter built home as he walked through the grand space. He had on a basketball jersey and dark jeans, his black hair in braids and back in a ponytail so you could clearly see his light mocha colored face and dark brown eyes. He eventually found his mother, one Dr. Eglantine Schaffer, in the kitchen preparing dinner for them and whatever kids were staying with them that night.

"What's wrong Jarrell, honey?" Eglantine asked without turning to her son. Jarrell crossed the kitchen and held out the stack of mail to Eglantine, raising a thick black eyebrow at her.

"Why did you get a letter from the FBI?" Jarrell asked, causing Eglantine to turn on her heel from their meal to snatch the mail from him. She flipped through the mail as Jarrell looked at her lit up face in amusement. "They have a patient for you, don't they?"

"How could you tell?" Eglantine laughed, smiling up at her son when she found the letter she was looking for.

"I've only ever seen you look that eager when you have a patient, Mama," Jarrell chuckled as he hugged Eglantine with his one arm while she looked closely at the letter. "You had the same face when I came to your home."

"Oh Jarrell, you silly boy," Eglantine chuckled, patting the teen's arm as she stepped away from him to finish their dinner. "I will be gone while you kids are at school and maybe even a little after."

"I'll make sure everyone gets their snacks and does their homework," Jarrell said as he took up the waiting stack of plates so he could go set their dining table. "You don't have to worry about anything here Mama. You go help the new kid out the best you can."

"Jarrell, you're such a good kid," Eglantine smiled at him before he left to go deal with the other kids staying in the home. She put down the mail for a moment to finish the meal, trying not to think about the waiting letter on the counter behind her. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her so she had to turn and pick up the letter to open it.

"Miss E! They're being mean to me!" one of the young girls that she was looking after that afternoon cried out from the stairwell in the other room. Eglantine sighed softly, putting down the partially opened letter so she could got handle the problem. Eglantine found that the rest of the night was filled with the children taking up her time, so she couldn't even think about the letter waiting for her.

It wasn't until everyone was either safely at home or tucked into one of the many beds in her home that Eglantine finally got to retire to her room to check her mail and do some of her computer work. Noticing the letter, Eglantine took up again with an energetic smile returning to her face after such a long day. Opening the letter and reading it, Eglantine swiftly found out that it was from Agent Hotchner and that it held her new badge with instructions to start coming in to do her observations the next morning since the team had returned from their case the day before and would be returning to work after their short break. Grinning, Eglantine rolled over to her closet and pulled out her favorite denim jacket to pin the badge onto it before she lost it. She couldn't wait for her new job to begin and decided to spend the next few hours researching adult mental diseases that her patient could be suffering from and getting a refresher on all that she had learned while she had been an undergraduate.

"Mama Bear! You're going to be late if you don't hurry it up!" Jarrell called through Eglantine's door the next morning. Eglantine jolted awake and winced at the pain that shot through her back after sleeping at her desk all night. She blinked and looked around at her clock before she realized that she should have been up several hours ago to make breakfast and lunch for the kids before they went to school. She jumped up and did a quick change of her clothes before she dashed down the hall to the kitchen only to see Jarrell expertly packing away several sack lunches as the other kids ate rambunctiously at the table in the other room.

"Oh Jarrell dear, you save your Mama so much stress," Eglantine sighed as she leaned against the doorway in relief that her morning work had been covered by her son. Jarrell glanced up with a grin at his mother's words as he folded down the last flap of the sack lunches.

"I've been helping you for how long Mama? I think I can handle one morning of only three kids by myself," Jarrell chuckled as he gave his mother a once over. "Are you ready to go to work or are you planning on being late on your first day?"

"Don't tease me, sweetie," Eglantine said in a warning tone as she took up the last plate of eggs that was sitting on the counter for her. "I'll see you kids off to the bus before I head over to work. I don't know how late I will be tonight and it's a Thursday so please-"

"Make sure everyone has their homework done and snacks eaten before we pop in the movie," Jarrell recited as he turned to wash some of the dishes off before placing them in their washer. "I've got this Mama. This is probably my five hundredth movie day, so I know the drill."

"I'm glad I have such a good boy," Eglantine said as she kissed her son's cheek, earning a glare from him. "It makes me stress less knowing you will look out for the other kids while I'm away."

"Yeah, yeah," Jarrell waved her off as he turned to scoop up the sack lunches. "Let's just get this brood out of here so you can get to work."

**So you get to see some of Eglantine's home life in this chapter just because I had an idea and wanted to bring in Jarrell to help with that idea. So, yeah, Jarrell isn't described much just yet, but he will be soon enough since he is probably the only one of Eglantine's kids that will have a reoccurring role.**


	4. Chapter 4

Eglantine slowly walked into Quantico and immediately knew she looked like a tourist. Everyone else looked so professional in slacks and nice clothing while she was wearing her favorite worn down denim jacket over a comfortable old dress she had bought at a garage sale a while back. She looked around at the small, but sleek building and slowly made her way to the security check point so they could check her messenger bag and new ID.

"Hey Doc," someone said behind her and made her jump, turning around to find the tall, dark agent she had met the last time she was there.

"H-Hello," she said as she was ushered through the check point. "You work with Dr. Reid right?"

"Yep, Derek Morgan," the man introduced himself as he was basically waved through the check point. "You starting work today?"

"Yes," Eglantine smiled brightly at the idea of starting her work with her patient. "Will it be possible for me to talk to you and the rest of the team discretely throughout the day?"

"No problem, Doc," Morgan said as he led her towards the particular group of offices his team worked at. "How long are you working for?"

"Ah, I don't know," Eglantine admitted as she thought about what all she wanted to know. "I want to get to know Dr. Reid before I do my analysis, so however long it takes for him to open up I guess."

"We might want to get you your own office then," Morgan chuckled as he held open the glass doors of their offices for her. "If I know one thing about that kid, it's that he does not trust anyone easily."

"I don't mind," Eglantine replied as she entered the bullpen and looked around at the sluggishly moving people.

"Must've been a long night," Morgan sighed as he ran a hand over his bald head before he turned to the smaller woman beside him. "I'll take you to Hotch's office, but then I've got paperwork to do."

"I understand," Eglantine said, smiling at the agent as he led her across the nearly empty bullpen. "For now, I don't want Dr. Reid to know I'm here, but maybe I can talk to you whenever you take a break from your work?"

"Whatever you need to help," Morgan replied, grinning good naturedly at the young psychologist before him. He knocked on the door for her before he opened it, noticing immediately that his boss was swamped with paperwork. "The Doc is here."

"Let her in," Hotch instructed, moving some of his work aside so he could give Eglantine his attention as she walked in and hesitantly sat down with feelings of being in the principal's office at school. Morgan closed the door quietly and just in time for Reid to enter the bullpen. Hotch looked down at Eglantine with an unreadable expression. "You received my letter then?"

"Yes I did and thank you for the ID, it made things much easier this morning," Eglantine said quietly, feeling intimidated now that she was alone in the office with the stern looking man. Her eyes flicked to all of the files on his desk before looking back at his stony face. "I-If you are busy, I do not have to stay in your office."

"I am always busy," Hotch said as he stood tiredly, having already had a long morning even though he had only been there for a few hours. He motioned towards his window that had a high backed chair and a small table set up next to it. "We have already prepared a place for you in not only my office, but Agent Rossi's and Garcia's offices."

"Th-That is very kind of you," Eglantine murmured nervously, glancing out the window to see the steadily filling bullpen. She spotted her patient come in with the bubbly blonde from Eglantine's last visit. "I guess I should get to work now that he is here to observe."

Hotch nodded as he got back to work, leaving Eglantine to settle into her makeshift desk and start observing his resident genius. Watching the team interact was very odd for Eglantine since she couldn't hear what they were saying as they called to each other from their desks as they worked on paperwork. Eglantine made small notes of Reid's somewhat antisocial behavior, but it was mostly things she noticed about how he interacted with the man she had met earlier, Derek she believed his name was. Their interactions were very interesting to the young doctor as she watched them converse and play around much like she would see brothers do from time to time to let off steam. Derek was clearly the dominant older brother in their relationship while Dr. Reid was the more docile younger brother. While they do not look the same, Eglantine was sure the two men were closer than many biological brothers. On that thought, she turned to Hotch to ask him something and noticed him cleaning up the files on his desk. She frowned and glanced at her watch, wondering how she had spent several hours watching the team without even realizing it.

"Normally we have lunch individually, but I would be willing to call a group lunch if you wish to talk to the team," Hotch told her when he noticed her watching him. Eglantine weighed her options for a moment before she nodded.

"A group lunch sounds like a great idea," she said cheerfully, having not been introduced to everyone on the team and wanting to know their names for when she watched them. Hotch nodded his consent before he turned to his phone and picked up, swiftly dialing a number as he did so.

"Garcia, have everyone meet in the conference room for lunch in twenty," he instructed in a deep, commanding tone that reminded Eglantine of her own father's whenever he was telling her or her siblings to do something. "Also, order the team take out from somewhere. I don't anyone to have an excuse not to be at the meeting."

He hung up the phone seconds after his demands were said. He turned to Eglantine as he stood up, picking up a stack of files from his desk as he looked at her.

"We'll head over there first, so you can meet everyone as they come in," he said before he began to walk out of the room. Eglantine had to jump up and race after him in order to not get lost on the way with how fast he was walking.

**Hey guys! I'm sorry it's been a while since I posted. I was in a car crash about a month ago and my computer lost it's screen, so I've been out of luck using it until now. On a brighter note, I actually have lots of ideas for this for when the season ends! Lots and lots of drama ahead! Thanks for reading everyone and I hope you review what you think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I must thank Sue1313 for reviewing each chapter recently! Your reviews have given me the inspiration to keep writing late into the night. I also love it too when the team treats Reid like a kid, since he is the baby of the group. About the Gideon thing, it probably won't happen for a while since Gideon was a very near and dear person to him and he just met Eglantine, so he wouldn't exactly want to share with her just yet. About Jarrell, I love Jarrell to death and can't wait to bring him back in. I know exactly what you mean about Strauss, it happens to everyone except Will, he's the only one who had yet to suffer from the BAU curse. **

**Now that reviews are done, on to the next chapter!**

"Welcome back Dr. Schaffer," Rossi greeted the young psychologist as he entered the meeting room. Eglantine looked up from her conversation with Hotch to see the older man walk in, causing her to jump from her seat.

"Agent Rossi it's an honor to meet you," she said excitedly, her cheeks flushing and her eyes lighting up as she extended her hand for him to shake. "I've read your work on child criminals and I must say that it brings to question a lot of what we don't know about the developing brain."

Rossi looked at her in amusement as he shook her hand, mildly surprised at how firm the thin woman's grip was. Rossi sat in his usual spot around the round table and Eglantine quickly took her seat as well, looking like she was about to burst with the questions she wanted to ask him. Before she could open her mouth though, JJ walked in and gave a bright greeting to the doctor and two profilers with Alex following suite within moments.

"I see you are making yourself at home," Morgan laughed as he and Garcia walked through the door to the meeting room to see Eglantine trying to talk to all of the profilers at once.

"I want to try and get to know everyone since I will be working for you," Eglantine admitted sheepishly, smiling slightly as a blush colored her cheeks.

"You aren't working for us, Doc," Morgan ruffled her hair before he started to help Garcia pass around orders of Chinese food. "You're working with us in helping Pretty Boy."

"What about me?" Reid asked as he finally walked through the door, pausing when he spotted Eglantine sitting in his normal seat. He frowned at the sight of her, having hoped she had given up on talking to him after he was so difficult during their last meeting. He had made sure to try and be as much like the old, chatter box of facts self as he could in hopes of keeping her away since he didn't think he needed to see a psychologist.

"Hey, Reid," Morgan said, patting the genius' shoulder before turning to give Eglantine a grin. "Eglantine came back to chat with all of us over lunch."

"I hope that's alright," Eglantine said quietly, noticing that her patient didn't look happy to see her.

"It's not my choice apparently," Reid said stoically as he pulled up a new chair to sit down as Garcia handed him his meal and a fork. Reid ate in silence as the rest of the team settled in and began to chat with the doctor.

"So, if you are a child's psychologist, do you have any kids?" JJ asked once a few formalities passed.

"I have a seventeen year old son," Eglantine answered the young mother with a bright smile. "Out of all of the kids I've taken care of, J is truly my pride and joy."

"How old were you when you had him?" Reid asked, eyes narrowed at her as he did the math in his head. "Were you raped as a child?"

"Reid," JJ scolded the man she saw as a little brother as several of the other members of the team nearly choked on their meals at the sudden question.

"I was not," Eglantine said with a small smile, looking as if the question didn't disturb her in the slightest. "I adopted Jarrell two years ago when he came to my home in the need of a real mother. So, while I did not give birth to him, he is my son and he sees me as his mom."

Reid returned his focus to his meal at her answer with a slight frown the only indication that he was even thinking about it. The others also ate in silence for a moment, unsure of what to say after Reid's questioning.

"Are you a member of the foster system?" Garcia asked hesitantly, trying to break the ice with something even if it was something she already knew from the doctor's file. Eglantine nodded, grateful for the distraction from their previous silence.

"I've been taking in foster children since I was approved several years ago," Eglantine answered with a whimsical smile. "Yet I have never had a child remain in my care for more than a few months at a time since I'm only an in between house at this point."

"So you are their first stop before being assigned a new home?" Alex questioned before she sipped at her coffee.

"I want to be an end home, but the agency decided that I already take care of too many children to be an active and final home for any of the children that come to me," Eglantine told them sadly, opening up to the team in hopes that she would get honesty in return for her honesty. It was something she had used with the kids she gave therapy to and had always gotten good results after a few sessions. "So I am their first step into a new life and I try to help them make the transition as smoothly as possible."

"That is very noble of you," JJ said, smiling at the younger woman. As a mother herself, JJ was glad there were other women out there looking out for the children who didn't have proper mothers of their own and hoped, heaven forbid something actually happening to her team and her husband, that a woman who actually cared like Eglantine seemed to would take in her son.

"How is it any more noble than what all of you do every day?" Eglantine laughed softly, almost sadly as she looked around the team of profilers. "You solve cases all over the country that help keep families from harm and keep kids in a safe environment one criminal at a time. It's wonderful what you do and I could only dream of helping on such a grand scale as you."

"That is very kind of you to say," Alex said, glancing at Rossi and Hotch with a raised eyebrow. Both of the older male profilers looked just as amused as she did, though they too were thinking about what Eglantine had just said about them.

JJ sighed as her phone began to ring, quickly leaving the room to answer it.

"What other things did you study in college?" Rossi asked curiously, leaning back in his chair to observe the brunette as Hotch stood to follow JJ out of the door.

"I have a minor in East Asian Language and Culture with a concentration in Chinese," Eglantine said thoughtfully, remembering her few degrees. "Which is just a fancy way of saying that I have a minor in Chinese."

"Why Chinese?" Morgan gave her a confused look, trying to decipher why anyone would want to learn such a difficult looking language. Eglantine shrugged, smiling slightly as she remembered her years as an undergraduate.

"It was required of us to take three semesters of a foreign language at the first college I studied at and I happened to choose Chinese," Eglantine informed them with another shrug. "It's not that I'm particularly any good with the language. I can hardly say a basic sentence without getting odd looks, but the culture is extremely fascinating to me and I enjoyed learning about it."

"We have a case," Hotch said as he entered the room once more with JJ following behind with a stack of files in her arms. Eglantine looked at him worriedly as the agents all began to pack away their lunch trash and clear off the table for their debriefing. Alex stood with her cell phone at the ready, stepping out to go make a call as JJ began to pass out the files to everyone but Eglantine. Eglantine stood and quickly moved from the table to get out of their way.

"We don't know when we will get back," Hotch told her as he flipped through the file in his hands. "This case is particularly scattered, so it may take us a while to solve it."

"I understand," Eglantine nodded, smiling slightly. "I'll leave now so you can get to work. Please let me know when you return and would like me back. Until then, good luck on finding your criminal."

"Unsub," Reid corrected her as he seemed to skim through the file at a lightning speed. Eglantine blinked at him for a moment before she hurried out the door, passing Alex as she explained something to someone on her phone.

Eglantine sighed as she entered the elevator to leave, wishing she had spent more than half a day observing the team, but knowing she had notes to go over and a plan of action to form while they were away.

**Happy happy birthday to me! Yesterday was my birthday everyone and I had planned on working on all of my fanfics to celebrate, but the internet at my house just so happened to pick yesterday of all days to go out. Ah, oh well, things are picking up as we enter the end of the season and the beginning of Eglantine's real time with the BAU.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you tannerose5 for reviewing. What questioning were you referring to?**

**Thank you to Sue1313 for reviewing. I know. I love writing Reid as essentially a big kid since he never really has had a reason to grow up and 'mature' like the others, especially when he is treated like the kid of the group. His innocence is one of his many good features. **

It was several weeks before Eglantine heard from the BAU and even then it was only a short email from Garcia saying that the team would be taking several days off due to a recent loss. This news worried Eglantine greatly, but her reply email went unanswered and left her to wonder what kind of loss the team was suffering.

It was these worried thoughts that clouded her mind while she worked with her children every afternoon and caused her to become forgetful of her daily work while the children were at school. Days went by with Eglantine in a near fog of worry with Jarrell constantly having to pick up slack for her as she got lost in thought more and more.

"Miss E," she was roused from her most recent worried daze by a soft voice calling to her from the door to her office. Eglantine looked up to see a little girl looking at her with tear filled eyes.

"Yes honey?" Eglantine immediately asked, wondering to herself how long the girl had been there and watching her stare off in thought. The girl edged into the room and Eglantine immediately noticed a large jelly stain on her cheek that she knew would not get past her's or her son's regime of cleanliness after snack time. She pulled a wet wipe from the container on her desk and motioned the girl forward so she could clean her cheek.

"Miss E will Jarrell come back soon?" the girl asked as Eglantine softly wiped the jelly from her cheek. Eglantine frowned at the girl's words, having no recollection of Jarrell having plans to go somewhere that day.

"Do you know where he went, Anna?" Eglantine asked the girl as she threw away the dirtied wipe. Anna shook her blonde head as she looked at her care taker worriedly.

"He got into a car with some big men after he got us inside," Anna answered, causing Eglantine's eyes to widen. She knew Jarrell very well and that meant she knew that she wouldn't just send the children inside for no reason. "Is he coming home soon?"

"I'm going to take all of you home for the evening, sweet heart, and then I'm going to go find him, okay?" Eglantine said slowly, trying not to worry the girl as she stood and took the little girl's hand. It took Eglantine much longer than she had wanted to get the kids together and off to their proper homes, letting them know that they couldn't stay with her that night due to Jarrell going missing. The older kids seemed to understand the situation perfectly and took charge of getting the younger kids home, telling Eglantine to go find their friend and, in many ways, leader.

It took most of the afternoon for Eglantine to search Jarrell's normal hang outs, making her worry more and more with each stop she came to and left empty handed. Finally, she had to admit to herself that she had no idea where to find him and had to go home to call the police.

"911, what's your emergency?" the female voice on the other side of the phone answered calmly and Eglantine let out a shaky breath before she explained that her son had gone missing. The woman reassured her that everything would be alright and that an officer was on their way to her home so they could start their search. Eglantine waited impatiently for the officer to arrive and nearly threw her front door of its hinges when he finally arrived. The officer was polite and asked many questions about Jarrell, but seemed completely uninterested in finding the teen once he found out Jarrell's age and past of having an improper home. The officer left nearly as quickly as he had come, leaving Eglantine in a state of more worry than before he had arrived.

Eglantine paced her home for a while after the officer had left, watching the clock as it struck seven, officially signalling that her boy had been missing for three hours. On her next rotation around the living room, Eglantine's eyes broke away from the clock and landed on her denim jacket and her FBI ID. She stopped in her tracks and stared at the ID like it was calling out to her. She couldn't help but to bite her lip as she thought of the pros and cons of going to the team she had recently gotten to know. They hadn't seen each other since the brief lunch they had shared and she didn't want them to think she thought she had special privileges or anything, but, oh, was she so worried about Jarrell being missing and having no idea about where he could be. Steeling her resolve, Eglantine snatched up her jacket as she marched out the door and headed for the FBI headquarters.

It took her much less time to reach the facility than she had expected and she was ushered through security almost off handedly since there was no one coming in or out of the building. Eglantine grew uneasy as she headed for the offices of the team she knew since she had no actual idea of if they were even going to be there or not. When the elevator doors opened and she saw Morgan, Reid, and Garcia standing on the other side, she almost burst into tears.

"Hey, Doc, what're you doing here so late?" Morgan asked with a good natured grin as Reid frowned at the sight of her.

"Help me," Eglantine managed to get out as she broke down in tears at the sight of the three agents. They looked absolutely bewildered when she started to cry. Garcia hurried forward and wrapped a comforting arm around the young doctor as she led her towards their bullpen. Alex looked up from the paperwork on her desk and frowned at the sight of Eglantine being led in by Garcia with Reid and Morgan flanking them.

"What's going on?" she asked as she stood, offering her seat to Eglantine as the group neared. Morgan shrugged as Garcia eased her into the seat and continued to rub her back comfortingly. Alex looked at Eglantine for a moment before she jerked her head up to the catwalk. "I'll go get Hotch, Rossi, and JJ."

Morgan nodded as Alex took off to get the last members of their group, glancing over her shoulder as she moved to send one last saddened look at Eglantine.

Once the team had assembled in the bullpen and Garcia had calmed Eglantine down enough, the young mother looked up at them pleadingly.

"Jarrell, my son, he's missing," she said haltingly as if she didn't want to admit it herself. The agents shared a look that Eglantine couldn't read for a moment before Hotch looked at her sternly, causing her to prepare herself for his anger at her coming to them.

"Are you sure he's missing and not just with some friends? It is not even eight yet," Hotch said calmly and in a much more sympathetic tone than what Eglantine was expecting.

"N-No, I'm sure," Eglantine said once she got over her surprise at him not being upset. "A little girl I was caring for saw him get into a car with some men and he hasn't even tried to contact me since, so I know something is wrong."

"How are you sure?" Morgan asked her with a frown.

"Jarrell is a good son and tries to make me worry as little as possible, so he always makes sure to contact me whenever he thinks he will be out after dark," Eglantine explained, tears coming to her eyes as she spoke about him.

"And did you contact the police?" JJ asked pointedly, though she was also worried for the teen since heaven knew where he could be now.

"Yes, but they didn't seem like they were going to help once they found out that Jarrell is seventeen," Eglantine informed them, becoming more and more worried that they weren't going to help her find her boy. Eglantine hung her head at the thought, knowing she wouldn't be able to find him without their help. "Please help me find my son, he's all I have left of family."

The team looked at each other as she hung her head, silently agreeing on whether or not they should step in.

"We will help," Hotch said for the team once they came to a consensus, making Eglantine's head shoot up to look at each of them gratefully. "But this case is off the books, so we will have to go to other cases if one comes up."

"I completely understand," Eglantine said breathlessly, hope returning to her at Hotch's words. "I'm just thankful that you are going to help me find Jarrell."

"First things first, we have to set up a victim profile, so you need to tell us everything you can about Jarrell," Morgan said as they moved to the conference room to be more comfortable. Eglantine nodded and closed her eyes to help her remember finer details.

"Jarrell's birth name was Jarrell Andre Torins," she began with her face eerily calm as she began to tell them about her son with Garcia looking into him on her computers and the rest of the team taking notes. "His mother was a drug addict and his father wasn't in the picture, so he grew up in a poor area of Houston that was full of addicts of various kinds."

"Is his mother still in the picture?" JJ asked, glancing up from her notes on the boy only to receive a shake of her head from Eglantine.

"No, his mother was arrested for drug possession and endangerment of a child once Jarrell's little brother died," Eglantine answered sadly.

"Is that how you came to be his guardian?" Rossi asked her, not really taking notes but watching her thoughtfully instead.

"He had come to my previous home with some of his friends because I was putting together a basketball team and they hadn't been allowed onto their school's team," Eglantine explained with a small frown. "They had all been from the same neighborhood and each had their own problems with addiction since the substances were readily available for them. After I talked to them, it seemed like Jarrell was the only one who dreamed of bigger and better things for him and his brother."

"That's why you took him in? Because he was the only one to want more?" Reid asked a little harshly, but Eglantine didn't seem perturbed by it.

"Not at all. I took him in because he was a boy who desperately needed a better home environment. I would have gladly taken in his friends too if they had let me take care of them," Eglantine explained with a small laugh. "It was actually Damien who convinced Jarrell to stay with me for nights on end. Jarrell being the protective big brother he is just didn't want to leave his little brother behind at a strange woman's house, so he ended up staying whenever Damien did."

"Did Jarrell have a drug problem like his mother?" Hotch asked, his tone soft though his gaze was hard. Eglantine looked at him sadly for a moment before she nodded.

"Yes, he was addicted to heroin and probably had been since he was old enough to use the needle properly," she told them in a quiet tone as if telling them this would make them drop the case. "But he isn't any more! I have a strict no abusive substances rule in my house that he's been following for nearly three years now. He's completely clean and probably forever will be after his accident."

"Accident?" Morgan repeated, frowning as his mind conjured all kinds of ideas of the kid went through.

"Jarrell Torins, fifteen, was hospitalized almost three years ago with cardiac arrest and an infected wound in his arm," Garcia reported, pulling up the pictures of the scene from the accident. Jarrell looked very sickly and had large bags under his eyes and a large, swollen mound on his arm with a hole at the top. He looked completely green even through his tanned skin and would've looked dead if it wasn't for the fact that he had his not infected arm raised to flip the camera off. Fresh tears fell from Eglantine's eyes at the sight of those pictures that brought back the memories of the horrible night. Garcia gasped as she pulled up more pictures, these of a boy who looked a lot like Jarrell but several years younger.

"Damien Torins, twelve, was DOA due to a heart attack," Garcia said in little more than a whisper.

"They had gotten a bad batch of heroin that had spread through Houston like the plague for a few weeks," Eglantine explained shakily, letting her tears fall freely as she tried to explain the incident. "Jarrell was older and much more used to using so he managed to survive, but Damien's body couldn't handle it and gave out. Jarrell still blames himself for his brother's death since he was the one who gave him the shot."

"I thought you said he was a protective older brother?" Reid said with narrow eyes, trying to catch if Eglantine was lying to them about any of this.

"Oh he is normally, but heroin was his weakness and the cause of the only abuse Damien ever suffered in that house," Eglantine said softly. "Jarrell always took their mother's beating and whatever verbal abuse she liked to give whenever she was actually home. He always protected Damien from everyone and everything, but that one part of him that he couldn't control back then."

"But he can control it now?" Morgan asked hesitantly, drawing a smile from Eglantine though it was by no means a cheerful one.

"You see that arm that got infected?" Eglantine pointed at the picture of Jarrell and laughed humorlessly. "He had to have it amputated because they couldn't get rid of the infection fast enough for it to not travel to the rest of his body. Every day he's reminded by that stub of the mistake that he made and the reasons why he shouldn't dabble in abusive substances again. He's a smart boy and has been clean ever since."

"Is it possible that he was lured away by someone offering heroin?" Hotch asked her thoughtfully.

"No, he would've walked away and called the police if they had," Eglantine told him, smiling slightly at the thought of her son doing good. "He doesn't want another family to get torn up, needfully or not, like his family did. The person who took him probably had to threaten him in some way."

"Let's put together a preliminary profile," Hotch said, standing to address the team. "From what we know of the victim, this Unsub is efficient at taking in their target."

"Most likely a team," Morgan said, leaning back in his chair to think comfortably. "Jarrell doesn't seem like the type of kid to go with just any one person."

"They may be using children as bait," Eglantine piped up, drawing the agents' curious looks which made her blush. "J-Jarrell wants to follow in my footsteps and help children get out of bad environments. If these people had a child with them, he might have gone with them to protect the child."

"Were any of the children you were caring for also missing?" Rossi asked her with a frown.

"No, everyone was accounted for when we gathered to go home," Eglantine answered promptly, taking pride in her own work to keep the kids safe. "We keep clear record of who comes every day and have adults sign the children out if they are to be taken home early. I-It's normally something Jarrell sees to so he could chat with each of the kids when they come in and find out how they are doing each day."

"He might have known something was wrong then," JJ put in, glancing at the screen that still held the gruesome pictures of Jarrell's accident.

"Eglantine will it be alright if some of us go to your home to look through Jarrell's things? If he was targeted, there might be something there that will let us know why," Hotch said, taking charge as they finished with their preliminary profile.

"I'll take you there," Eglantine nodded, thankful that they were going to help her find her boy. Hotch observed her for a moment before he nodded his consent and turned to his team.

"JJ, Morgan, and Reid, I want you to go to the victim's home and comb over it with a fine tooth comb," Hotch instructed as the team stood to gather their things. "Garcia, I want all of the information you can get me on Jarrell and anyone who has come in contact with him in the last few years."

"I'll do my digging and get back to you with your treasure," Garcia said, jumping up to move to her office. She gave Eglantine's shoulder a reassuring squeeze on her way out to let the young mother know that things would work out.

"Rossi, Blake, we will start piecing together a profile here and then head out to meet with people once Garcia gets back to us," Hotch instructed and the other two older agents nodded their understanding.

"Thank you everyone," Eglantine said to the group as they got to work.

"Don't thank us yet, Doc," Morgan said as he guided her out of the meeting room and to the elevator so they could go to her home. "You can thank us when we find Jarrell."


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you tannerose5 for reviewing! I couldn't have them not help her or risk having them seem heartless. I'll probably have an intervention some time soon about Reid's behavior.**

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! Let's hope Spencer learns to trust her.**

"This is home," Eglantine said as she and the three agents pulled up in a BAU SUV to her home. Eglantine got out with them and hurried to open the gate and door so they could get inside.

"Do you keep everything locked up?" Morgan asked as he inspected the gate's lock while the others headed for the spacious porch.

"You never know what might happen or who might be out there, so I try to keep me and my kids as safe as possible," Eglantine informed him as she unlocked the door, receiving loud barking as her keys jingled in her hands. Reid took a careful step away from the door at the deep barking, clearly not at ease at the sound of the dog.

"You have a dog," JJ pointed out with an uneasy smile as she too stepped back.

"Two actually," Eglantine told them as she slowly opened the door to reveal a tan colored dog and a black and brown colored dog that were both the size of a coffee table. "Bean, down. Jet, zuo xia."

Both dogs immediately sat down at her stern commands, though their tails were wagging and they clearly looked interested in their owner's guests. Eglantine knelt to pet the two as the three agents stepped into her home and glanced around the spacious entryway with impressed looks.

"Jarrell normally takes Jet with him when he takes the kids anywhere," Eglantine informed them, petting the brown and black dog affectionately. "He believes that a Doberman Pinscher is more effective at protecting people than a Southern Curr is."

"Why didn't he today?" Morgan asked, letting each of the dogs smell his hand so they could get used to his scent just in case he had to come here again.

"He was walking a boy home who is afraid of dogs home after Bean got a little too eager to play with him," Eglantine explained, frowning at the blonde dog who looked at her in return with sad eyes.

"Where's Jarrell's room?" JJ asked, peaking through one of the doors to see the dining room. Eglantine straightened from handling her dogs and motioned towards the other door.

"Upstairs with the other bedrooms," she informed them, leading the way. "The first floor consists of the kitchen, dining room, play room, and green house. The second floor has the bedrooms and most of the bathrooms while the third floor holds my office and the attic."

"Is your home open to patients?" JJ asked as they made their way to the second floor.

"Only for appointments. Most of my patients either come here on their own by means of the school bus or I will go meet them at their home upon their parent's request," Eglantine said as she opened the first door on the right to reveal a room clearly designed by a teenage boy. The walls were a bright red and the black carpet was a mess with various articles of clothing. The walls were covered in posters of basketball stars with a few pictures of scantly clad women hanging here and there. A stereo sat against the far wall between two pristine white doors with stacks of CDs and cassettes sitting on top of it. There was a basketball hoop hanging on the wall above his full sized bed that had plain red sheets on it. Eglantine frowned as they stepped into the room to look around and examine his things.

"Is something wrong?" JJ asked, glancing at the mother who was looking at the room like something was off.

"Jarrell always keeps his room clean, so the others will follow his example and keep the guest rooms clean," Eglantine explained, motioning to the mess all over the floor. "It's the one thing his friends tease him about since it's not normal teenage behavior."

"Do you think someone came in here and did this?" Morgan asked, looking at the room with a new light now that he knew the victim was normally neat.

"No one normally comes into our rooms when the doors are closed," Eglantine said thoughtfully as she watched the three agents go through her son's things. "We are the only permanent residents, so we try to keep our privacy somehow."

"You said that Jarrell didn't use drugs, right?" Reid said from where he was stooped over and looking through Jarrell's dresser.

"Yes I did, because my boy is as clean as a whistle," Eglantine said defensively.

"He must be a gym whistle then," Reid said, turning around to face the room as he held up a ziploc bag with a pipe and small shards of glass in it. Eglantine's eyes widened in horror at the sight of the bag as she dropped to her knees. "He has a federal offense in this bag."

"Are you sure Pretty Boy?" Morgan asked solemnly as Reid passed the bag over to him to examine with a nod. Morgan looked at his two teammates for a moment before he turned to Eglantine sadly. "This changes the whole profile of the case. We are no longer looking for a kidnapped teen, but a fugitive."

"No!" Eglantine cried out, looking at them with pain filled but determined eyes. "Jarrell wouldn't do this just like this mess is not his! He is a good boy and knows better than the act like this."

"He may know to act better, but he clearly wasn't," Reid said with a humorless laugh at her reaction.

"Hey," Morgan said, frowning at Reid's treatment of the ailing mother. Morgan swiftly took Reid's arm and led him from the room with a nod to JJ to finish up. Morgan stopped at the end of the hall, hopefully far enough away from the women so they wouldn't hear, as he turned on Reid. "What was that for?"

"She was clearly delusional about how her son really is," Reid said with a shrug.

"That's not how we go about helping families and you know that, Reid," Morgan said, eyeing the younger man for any clue as to what was wrong. "What's going on with you? You've never treated a victim's family like this before."

"Nothing's wrong," Reid snapped at Morgan, frowning at the more muscular man. Morgan gave Reid a pointed look that told the genius that he wasn't buying into that. Reid contemplated his options for a moment before he decided to give in. "I don't want anything to do with her."

"So you treat her like crap?" Morgan asked with an eyebrow raised and an amused expression on his face. "Come on Pretty Boy, you need a better reason than that for why you've been so rude."

"It's the truth," Reid sputtered, eyes wide at the fact that Morgan thought he was kidding when he knew that he was one of the few people Reid honestly confided in. "I don't want anything to do with her and you guys keep forcing her on me."

"Why don't you want anything to do with her?" Morgan asked, frowning once he realized that the young man in front of him was being serious.

"Because she seems so fake to me," Reid answered after a moment of thought. "She's all smiles and happiness until something in her perfect world goes wrong and then she shatters like she was made of china."

"My world isn't perfect," the two men freeze at the sound of Eglantine's hollow voice, both turning to see her standing a few feet down the hall. She was looking at them with a pained and tired expression, one that didn't fit Reid's idea of her normal cheery self. "By no means is my world perfect, but I try hard to make people not worry about me so I smile and laugh even when I don't want to. Quite a bit like your mask, eh, Dr. Reid?"

Reid looked at her dumbfounded while Morgan looked back and forth between them worriedly.

"I've worn a mask to hide my pain for so long that I can see through most even though I don't always want to," Eglantine explained softly, trying to smile at them though it looked more like a grimace. "Your mask is very well made, Dr. Reid, and it's clearly refined from practice, but you can't hide everything, can you?"

Reid narrowed his eyes at her accusation and moved to leave the situation, but Morgan grabbed his arm to keep him there.

"Why do you need to wear a mask kid?" Morgan asked, clearly worried for his friend. "I understand in the field, but from the way she's talking it sounds like you wear one all the time."

"Because everyone already treats me like a child, so I don't need everyone worrying about me if they see every little thing I feel," Reid snapped at his best friend before he shook his arm free and headed for the stairs.

"I'm sorry for all of this," Eglantine said sadly once Reid had left the floor. Morgan looked at her and sighed.

"Nah, it's not really your fault," he said, giving her a weak smile. "We've all been noticing that he hasn't been quite himself since Maeve, so his blow up was bound to happen to one of us."

Eglantine nodded as she mulled over his words, following the agent as they headed for the others. "Agent Morgan?"

Morgan turned at the top of the stairs at her call, seeing her curious look.

"Who's Maeve?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! Yeah, she can read through masks like that pretty well because she has a very similar mask that she wears.**

"Who is Maeve?" Eglantine asked, frowning at Morgan.

"That's something only Reid can really tell you," Morgan sighed in clear indication that it was a heavy subject to talk about. Eglantine nodded slightly and followed Morgan to the bottom floor to meet up with JJ and Reid as they discussed something in muted tones. "What's going on?"

"We were talking about how we need to get back to help with the profile since there isn't much more we can do here," JJ explained, giving Reid a frown in indication that she wasn't happy with him. "But I'm not comfortable with leaving Eglantine here alone with the Unsub still out there. For all we know, she's the target and Jarrell was just a means of getting to her."

Morgan nodded, looking thoughtful as he brought out his phone and keys.

"We'll see you later Doc," Morgan said nonchalantly as he opened the front door. JJ stepped out after him with a confused look, but smiled when Morgan slammed the door closed before Reid could follow them. "Protect the Doc well, Pretty Boy!"

JJ laughed quietly as the two headed back to their SUV, leaving their youngest member with his doctor in hopes that he opened up a bit after a night of forced co-occupation.

"You don't have to stay here if you don't want to," Eglantine said quietly to Reid's back as he stood by the front door, frozen from shock. "I'll be fine by myself."

"How are you going to protect yourself?" Reid asked in a tight voice before he cleared his throat and turned to her with a frown. "You're not exactly much of a threat."

"Says the skinniest guy I've ever met," Eglantine rolled her eyes and reached into her jacket to pull out a small hand held gun. "I have a license to carry a concealed fire arm. I've grown up fighting men larger than Morgan. And I have a knife under my mattress."

Reid could only blink at her with a stunned expression as she listed off her protection.

"It's in my blood to use weapons of every kind," Eglantine explained as she put her gun back in her jacket. "My mother's family has raised some of the best shots in the state of Florida while my father's side have been using blades for as long we can trace our family back, so I've been trained since I could hold each and every one of the weapons my family has owned."

"That's excessive," Reid managed to say through his surprise. Eglantine shrugged as she knelt to pet the dogs by her feet.

"It's part of life in my family," she said with a small smile. "If you can't defend yourself, then you can't survive. So, again, if you want to leave, I'm not going to stop you."

Reid nodded and picked up his phone, stepping into the adjacent room to make the call. Eglantine frowned in his direction before she headed the opposite way to her kitchen. She had hoped that her patient would have been willing to stay so they could talk through what made him dislike her so much, but it looked to be that those hopes were to be dashed quite quickly. She hardly glanced away from her tea preparations when he strode into the kitchen with a sour face.

"You aren't supposed to leave my line of sight if I'm supposed to protect you," he grumbled as he stood in the doorway.

"Then you are staying?" Eglantine asked, not turning to face him so she could hide the slight smile on her face and the second mug in front of her.

"Hotch almost chewed me out for suggesting coming back to the office without you, even after I explained your apparent qualifications," Reid explained with a sigh. Eglantine had to thank her lucky stars that the FBI leader seemed to be on her side. She turned around once the tea was done to see him sitting at her bar. She smiled at him as she slid her extra mug of tea towards him, receiving a curious look from him.

"It's only tea, Dr. Reid," she said, taking a sip of her own mug. Reid hesitantly picked up the mug and took a sip, a surprised look crossing his face at the taste. "I noticed that you like a lot of sugar in your coffee, so I made your tea similarly. Before you say a word, it wasn't much trouble for me since I make my tea very sweet to begin with."

Reid nodded and slowly took another sip of the tea. He wasn't quite sure how she could remember that he liked sweet beverages when she had only been to the office to see him once after their initial meeting and that was nearly a month ago. He looked at her and saw that she was staring out towards the windows and playing with her mug absently. He cleared his throat to draw her attention.

"Y-You should probably go get some rest," he suggested quietly. Eglantine smiled at him tiredly, reaching out to pat his arm.

"After all of the work you do, you have yet to realize that a mama does not rest until her baby is safe," she chuckled before she motioned to her tea. "I'll be alright with this."

"Is there anyone you want to contact that could possibly come stay with you?" Reid asked hesitantly.

"I left everyone that I could possibly call back in Texas," she murmured distantly, sadness clear in her eyes for a brief moment before she turned and smiled at Reid. "It's just me and Jarrell here in this big ol' house."

Reid frowned as he nodded, looking down at his cup to run a hand over the white ceramic.

"Do you have a family, Dr. Reid?" Eglantine asked, leaning on the counter in front of her to show that he had her undivided attention. Reid glanced up at her for a moment before he looked down at his cup.

"My mother," he said quietly, not really wanting to give up too much information about himself but seeing no other choice. Eglantine looked thoughtful for a moment before she snapped her fingers and smiled.

"That's where I heard the name Reid from," she said, drawing his attention as she smiled at him. "I once went to a guest lecture at my undergrad school that was done by a woman named Diana Reid. It was a marvelous presentation and I had never been more thankful to be a member of the Classics Club than during that lecture. I was sad when I heard she was hospitalized and was only allowed to lecture every now and then."

Reid frowned at her. "My mother is Diana Reid."

"Well she's a genius, but I guess you already know that," Eglantine said excitedly, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. "I had actually thought about changing one of my minors to Classical Literature after her lecture."

"Why didn't you?" Reid asked, taking another sip of his tea with a small smile at how Eglantine was talking so in awe about his mother.

"I already had a minor in Chinese by that point and was working for a minor in Nonprofit Organizations," Eglantine said with a sigh. "My school would have let me do three minors, but I couldn't afford the fees that come with it."

Reid looked at her with a frown, thinking about the club she had mentioned. "Where did classics come in?"

"Ah, my student mentor my freshman year was a co-president of the club so she pulled me in to play Persephone in a play we did for some children and I never quit because I loved the club too much," Eglantine told him, taking her own sip of tea before she smiled at him. "What about you? What kind of clubs did you do in college?"

"None," Reid answered honestly, receiving a confused look from Eglantine. "I started college at thirteen."

Eglantine whistled, her face scrunching up as she tried to imagine it. "And I thought my baby sister was a genius."

Before Reid could question her on this, Bean and Jet began to bark from the back yard. Reid jumped up as Eglantine looked towards the commotion worriedly. The two dogs quieted after a moment and Reid relaxed back into his seat. He frowned when Eglantine started inching towards the back door, her hand reaching for her gun.

"What are you doing?" Reid asked, receiving a sign from her to hush as she inched closer to the door just as the handle began to jiggle. Reid jumped up and pulled Eglantine back, stepping in front of her as the door sung open.

**Ah, cliffy... So this was mostly a chapter for Reid and Eglantine to get a little closer during this case. Before anyone asks, I'm basing Eglantine off about ten year older me, so none of what I'm saying about her is false (except the part with Diana Reid, though my college does bring in guest lecturers all the time.) I have grown up learning to use different types of blades and to defend myself against large men and the degree info is all accurate for me at this point. So, yeah, next time you'll find out who Bean and Jet were barking at.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing!**

**Thank you tannerose5 for reviewing! I don't think I could kill the dogs, especially since one is based off a dog that I have now.**

**Thank you ZizFox for reviewing! I only stopped there cause I hadn't quite decided who it would be at the door.**

"Oh for the love of-! You almost gave me a heart attack Ava!" Eglantine nearly shouted when she saw the woman that was standing in the doorway with a very confused look on her face as to why there was a gun pointed at her. The woman had on a tight red dress that showed off all of her curves with a black leather jacket over it to protect her from the night air. Her hair was long, auburn, and wavy as it reached her waist and her eyes were a dull green that was highlighted with a mass of make up. She was extremely tall for a woman so it was a wonder why she wore thick black high heels and showed off her legs so much.

"I'm sorry honey, I just thought you would need some company after what happened to Jarrell," the woman said in an almost false high pitched tone. Eglantine stepped out from behind Reid and placed a hand on his gun to lower it.

"It's okay, Dr. Reid. She's a friend," Eglantine said and Ava's face immediately lit up as she observed the young agent.

"Oh! So this is the new patient you were telling me about," Ava said, grinning wildly at Reid as she batted her eyelashes. "He's much more handsome than you were letting on, Ela, my dear. Were you planning on keeping him all to yourself like a naughty girl?"

"He's my patient, Ava, not a play thing," Eglantine said sternly, the only hint at her embarrassment the light blush on her cheeks. Reid looked at Ava nervously as he edged back towards the counter.

"Oh, but you can't tell me you wouldn't mind breaking those ethics rules you follow for this little squeeze," Ava said, winking at Reid flirtatiously. Reid cleared his throat nervously at the obvious flirting by the beautiful woman. Eglantine also cleared her throat as she led the woman in and sat her down at the bar before locking the back door once more. In the moment it took Eglantine to lock the door, Ava was already trying to chat Reid up and was flirting with him heavily.

"Ava, if you can't follow my rules, then you will have to leave," Eglantine said sternly, her eyes narrowed at her friend. "I allow you over because we are colleagues and friends, not so you can flirt with my patients like you did with my son."

"Oh fine," Ava deflated before she looked at Eglantine tearfully. "Honey, how are you doing? I heard Jarrell was kidnapped and I know how important he is to you."

"I-I'm doing alright actually, considering," Eglantine sighed as she went back to her mug so she could take a sip. "I have some wonderful friends who are helping me look for him since the police didn't seem to want to."

"That's good honey," Ava murmured, reaching over and patting her hand sympathetically. Reid frowned as he observed the woman for a moment.

"Are you a transvestite?" he asked her, genuinely curious. He had seen many transvestites in his years because of where he grew up, but he hadn't really seen any since moving to D.C. Eglantine sputtered into her mug at the question even though she shouldn't be surprised if she thought about it since he had asked if she had been raped after finding out about Jarrell. Ava laughed off his question in a rumbling laugh that was fit for a man.

"Transgender actually," Ava answered, smiling at Reid with no hint of flirting in it. "I just don't have the money for the treatment and surgery yet."

"Says the man who stole his sister's birth control to get estrogen doses," Eglantine said softly, glancing away from Ava as the woman glared at her. Eglantine took a sip of her tea before she smiled at Reid. "Ava's name used to be Aron, but she changed it when she moved here and started to dress and act as a woman."

"As I should because I am a woman," Ava snapped at Eglantine, pushing up her small breasts as if to prove it. Eglantine rolled her eyes before she smiled at Ava.

"I know you are, that's why I support you in your lawsuit," Eglantine said softly and Ava smiled back at her. Reid looked back and forth between the women for a moment before he stood and headed for the other room, pulling out his phone as he did so.

"Reid, if you ask to come back to the office, I swear to God I'm going to hurt you," Morgan said the second he answered Reid's call. "It's almost midnight and you are the only one in a position to sleep."

"I'm not sleeping here," Reid snapped at his friend before he sighed, glancing back towards the kitchen where he could hear the two women chatting. "I need Garcia to look something up for me."

"What do you need?" he heard Garcia ask, knowing immediately that he was on speaker phone by the way her voice sounded distant.

"Can you look up someone named Ava for me?" Reid asked quietly so the women couldn't hear him.

"I'm going to need more than that if you want anything specific," Garcia told him though he was able to hear the clicking of her keyboard in clear sign that she was searching anyway.

"She's transgender and her name used to be Aron," Reid said, giving the only information he really knew about the woman. "She's here right now and she's apparently one of Eglantine's friends."

"Something feel off about her?" Hotch asked and Reid suddenly felt grateful that the whole team was there, since he knew that, if Morgan, Garcia, and Hotch were there, the others would be too.

"Eglantine said something about her flirting with Jarrell," Reid said, recalling the conversation quite well even though he was a little stressed by the transgender's flirting. "See if she has a background."

"I've got two Ava's that used to be Aron's in the area," Garcia informed the team, surprising them with how common that description actually was. "Anything else that can tell me which one it is?"

"She has an active lawsuit going that Eglantine is supporting," Reid told them, glancing back towards the kitchen. "I don't know what it's about, but it probably has something to do with transgender rights."

"I've got her," Garcia said cheerfully. "Ava, a.k.a. Aron, Goldbell, 35. Lives in D.C. by herself after growing up in Florida for most of her life. Has a Ph.D in Pharmaceutical Psychology from Florida State and, wouldn't you know it, has a record for molesting a little girl, but didn't serve any time because of police brutality. She is now suing the state of Florida because of how she was treated as a transgender in their criminal justice system."

"A girl?" Reid repeated, frowning at Garcia's words and ignoring the lawsuit part. "Are you sure it was a girl she molested?"

"Very sure," Garcia said, pulling up the file and gasping quietly. "Chubby brunette girl that was only 13. And here I thought child molesters only went after the princess types."

Reid jumped when he heard a crash from the kitchen, hanging his phone up as he rushed back to the room. He paused just outside the entry to draw his gun before he slipped inside. The sight before him made him stop and stare.


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! Eh, Ava is a bit of an odd ball and you probably won't be seeing the last of her. Possibly, I don't quite know yet. Either way, Morgan will continue to be funny because I see him and Garcia as the comedic duo lightening up the show whenever the others aren't having a funny moment.**

**Thank you tannerose5 for reviewing! Aron definitely did molest a girl, but got away with it because of the whole gender crisis thing that he was going through. And, since he changed his name and started acting like a girl, no one thought to look into it so he actually works with kids now.**

Reid leaned against the wall just outside of the kitchen as the rest of his team combed through the crime scene for any clues.

"We should just go after Ava," Reid said for the nth time since the team got there after his call for them to hurry over. Reid had walked into the kitchen after his initial call to see Eglantine's mug broken on the counter and the back door completely open. The mystery really came when he realized he hadn't heard the dogs barking. Why hadn't they attacked Ava when they saw that their master was hurt?

"We can't go after her until we figure out if Doc is injured or not," Morgan said as he waited by his best friend in case the genius broke down or something.

"There wasn't any blood," Reid said, recalling the crime scene quite well from his first look at it.

"And that doesn't mean she wasn't injured," Morgan pointed out with a sigh as he looked over at the brunette next to him. "You know that, Reid."

Reid shook his head and stepped from the wall, feeling the need to pace. He had been right there and Eglantine still got taken right under his nose. He should have waited for Ava to leave before he had made the call and now Eglantine was paying the price for his lack of ability.

"Stop beating yourself up, man," Morgan said, watching Reid pace with a sour face. "If Ava was this determined to get to Eglantine, she would have found another means of doing it when we weren't here. We are here now and were able to respond quickly, so we can find her all that much quicker and you know that is the important thing."

Reid paused in his pacing and nodded, only looking up when Hotch walked into the hallway with a frown.

"We don't think she was hurt," he said calmly, eyeing Reid carefully. "We think something was slipped into her tea while no one was paying attention. We are going after them in a moment. Reid, you are staying here."

Hotch sent the younger agent a stern look that told him not to test his judgement even as Reid was opening his mouth to protest. Reid frowned but nodded as the rest of their team joined them in the hallway. Most of them sent Reid a sympathetic look before they turned to their leader to discuss their plan of action. Reid watched them leave and head for where Eglantine was supposed to be before he slowly made his way upstairs. If he was going to be stuck here, then he was going to use this opportunity to learn more about the woman that was supposed to be his psychologist.

Once he found her room, the first door on the left on the second floor interestingly enough, he stepped into the neat but cluttered space. She had a small bed that was unmade from the night before with crumpled sheets of a leaf green and emerald green.

Across the room from her simple bed was a desk with a laptop plugged in and on with papers strewn all around the desk in a chaotic mess. He stepped up to the desk and picked up one of the papers, seeing a research study on adults with autism with the words Asperger's Syndrome circled in green ink. He frowned as he searched through the papers, seeing that they were all on adult mental issues, but none had anything else circled on them like the first one did. After a moment of staring at the pages, he turned to her computer to see it on its wallpaper with nothing pulled up except for some sticky notes with jumbled ideas on them. The wallpaper itself was of Eglantine and a bunch of people in front of a small building that said Flower Garden above them. Reid assumed that this was her first place that she had worked at before she had moved here.

He sat in her chair as he glanced around her room once more to see a book case sitting on the wall with the door into the hallway. Reid stood once more to go examine her books. He frowned when he saw it was a disorganized collection of research material on developmental psychology and fiction. One book in particular caught his eyes and he reached for the book. He flipped it to its cover and frowned, noticing that the author was none other than Eglantine Schaffer. In all of the books he had read, he had never come across her name, but the book clearly suggested that she was a published author. Sitting on the edge of her bed, he flipped open the book and marveled at the sight of his own mother's signature and a note of encouragement that was written in her hand. Deciding that if his mother liked it enough to sign it, he was going to read the book himself.

It didn't take read long to read the simple, 50,000 approximate word book with the only things that kept him from finishing sooner was the act of flipping the page. To him, it was incredibly simplistic, as if it was written for young teens at the most, but he figured that an average person would have enjoyed the fantasy book much more than he did. Flipping the book to its back once he was done, he noticed a picture of Eglantine from when she was much younger. He frowned, thinking of the simplistic wording and realized that she must have written the book when she herself was in her early teen years.

Replacing the book on the shelf, Reid looked around the room for more stuff to examine so he could learn about the woman he was being forced to converse with. Finding a picture album on a shelf below her beside table, he picked it up and began flipping through it. From what he could see there were lots of pictures of a happy little girl that liked to do a lot of different things. There were pictures of her in beautiful gowns, in a gymnastics uniform, a tutu, and even martial arts gear, but not once did Reid see a frown on the girl's face. As he flipped through the book and Eglantine's ages with her family, he still did not see a frown on her face unless it was on purpose with the person she was taking pictures with. There were even pictures of her with different guys at parties and what looked to be prom. Reid shook his head and wanted very much to throw the book at something.

She had said that she wore a mask to hide herself, but for what reason? As far as Reid could tell, she had nothing to be upset about. She clearly had a happy childhood and had a family that loved her, so why would she need a mask? It wasn't like she had anything to worry about with a life like those pictures showed!

Reid couldn't even figure out why he was so mad at Eglantine for saying she had a mask, he just knew that he now really didn't want anything to do with her. He left her room and paused in the hallway, looking around for where he should go. Remembering her mentioning something about her office being on the third floor, Reid made his way to the stairwell and slowly went up to go examine her office. The third floor was small and he had to stoop slightly in order to not hit his head on the rafters. There were only two doors on this floor that looked exactly the same. Moving to one and entering the room, he saw that he was in what looked to be a storage room full of boxes and old toys and furniture. He frowned and stepped back across the hall to the other room, finding a small office there. There was a desk with a few files sitting on it with a couple of plush chairs sitting across from it. Closest to the door, though, were a large amount of toys that any child would love to play with.

Stepping over the pile of toys to get to the desk, Reid looked at the organized desk and had to wonder how the owner of this clean desk was the same person who owned the cluttered desk just a floor below. The only thing on the desk was a a leather bound book with a pen attached to it by a silk ribbon. Opening it, he found that it was a journal of some kind. The first entry was marked July 26th of that year. Reid frowned as he sat to read the journal in hopes of finding out more about the woman who owned it.

_It's my birthday today, so I'm starting a new journal as I do every year. Jarrell and the kids got me this beautiful book to keep my thoughts is and I'm ever the more grateful for having them around. Jarrell keeps asking when the move is going to happen, but I don't want to leave quite yet just in case Mama and Daddy change their mind. Jarrell, the intuitive boy that he is, knows that somehow and says he doesn't think they will ever approve of me living in the slums with riffraff like him. I'm not so sure, I have to keep my hopes up that they will see that I have to do this, that this is my calling. That's all for today. Not that great of a birthday, but I've had worse I suppose._

Reid frowned at the entry, trying to make sense of what it said as he turned the page. It clearly was written before she came here, but it couldn't have been too long before since her home was already established in this area. He wondered for a moment about her parents and why they wouldn't approve of what she was doing if that's what she wanted to do with her life. Hoping to find more explanations, Reid continued to read until her finished the day by day book near five in the morning. He sighed as he closed the book, realizing that the last two hundred or so days had been incredibly uninformative about who Eglantine was. She wrote about them often ever since her first entry about their meeting and many of the text about them spoke of how worried she was about them being in the field and her unable to find out if they were okay. Apparently the time they had off after Strauss' death worried her greatly, but she wouldn't say why.

He stood and rubbed his eyes tiredly as he made his way down to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. Looking through her cabinets, he found a lot of organic and health food products. It took him looking through almost all of her cabinets to find a small jar of coffee, but he was disappointed when he found that it was full of used tea bags. Deciding not to question it, he placed the jar back and tried to think of where else the coffee could be.

"Can I help you?" a female voice said from behind him, making him whirl around to see an elderly, dark skinned woman standing in the doorway with a large group of kids behind her. The woman was looking at him suspiciously as she let the young boy she had been carrying slip from her frail looking arms. "Where's Miss E?"

"She isn't here," Reid answered, looking at the group in confusion. "How did you get in?"

"She gave me a key so I can bring the kids here for their breakfasts," the woman answered, motioning for the kids to head towards the dining room. "Normally I just bring the kids over and she takes care of the rest, but if she ain't here, then I guess I will cook for them."

Reid nodded and stepped out of the way so the elderly woman could hobble in and begin cooking breakfast.

"Who are you anyway? Miss E doesn't have a boyfriend and she's too moral of a woman to do one night stands," the woman asked, watching him out of the corner of her eye as she cooked.

"My name is Spencer Reid and I'm-," Reid began to say before she cut him off.

"You're one of Miss E's patients," she said and chuckled when he looked at her in confusion. She motioned over to a clipboard he hadn't noticed hanging on the wall just inside the kitchen. "Miss E keeps a list of her patients just in case she's out and we need to reach her. You're on that list, but she doesn't have any contact information for you for some reason. We all thought you were homeless, but I guess I was wrong about that with how you're dressed."

Reid looked down at the clothes he had been wearing for the last twenty four hours and frowned. Was there something wrong with his clothes? He guessed not if she said that he didn't look homeless.

"Are you going to join us for breakfast?" the woman asked, working skillfully to put together a massive feast for the children she had brought. "People call me Mama J around here and so can you."

The door opened then and drew their attention. Reid was surprised to see Eglantine being helped in by Morgan and Jarrell with JJ and Rossi behind them. Eglantine looked at her kitchen with a tearful smile as she hobbled weakly to a chair at the bar. Jarrell was right beside her, looking unharmed other than the bandage that was on his temple.

"Hey man, sorry it took so long," Morgan said to Reid with a sigh as the three agents also came into the kitchen, making it a little cramped. "Eglantine insisted on not staying in the hospital after we got her out of there and so did Jarrell."

"Our place is here," Jarrell said for his tired looking mother, keeping his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders as he looked at the agents. "We couldn't just leave the home unattended for so long."

"What happened?" Mama J asked, coming around the island to give Jarrell and Eglantine cups of steaming tea. "Did this have to do with Jarrell going missing?"

"Oh Mama Josephine!" Eglantine cried, wrapping her arms around the frail looking woman's shoulders and ignoring the offered cup of tea. "It was Ava! She took him to get to me! A-And she-!"

A sob escaped Eglantine's lips and cut her off. Mama J rubbed her back soothingly, trying to calm the brunette woman as she looked towards the agents for answers.

"We can't say too much about the case, but we have Ava in custody and plan on making sure he never gets out for what he did," Rossi said to the elderly woman. Mama J nodded her agreement even though she didn't know all of the details.

"You better make sure he pays for hurting this family," Mama J said, an underlying message that she would hurt all of them if they didn't quite clear to the agents. "Miss E and Jarrell are too apart of our neighborhood for you to just let them get hurt like this."

"We won't m'am," Morgan said soothingly as Eglantine sat up and sniffled.

"Thanks again for everything you guys," she said, motioning towards the stairs. "As I promised in the car, you guys are free to stay here for as long as you want and I promise you'll get a nice hot meal when you want it."

"I think we'll take you up on that," Rossi chuckled as he and Morgan headed for the stairs to take over some of the guest rooms. JJ paused as she passed Reid, giving him a brief worried look before she continued on towards the stairs to follow the others so she could be refreshed when she met Hotch and Blake back at headquarters so they could keep interviewing Ava.

"Jarrell, honey, you go get some rest too," Eglantine said softly to her son, patting his arm as mother and son shared a relieved smile with one another. Jarrell hugged his mother to him before hugging Mama J and heading towards the stairs so he could go to his room. Eglantine stood and headed for the stove, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she did so.

"What are you doing?" Reid asked her in confusion, watching as she got to work on cooking.

"Making breakfast of course," Eglantine replied cheerfully, smiling over her shoulder at him. "Would you like anything in particular? I'll make anything for someone who helped get my baby back to me."

"Shouldn't you be resting with the others?" Reid asked, brow furrowing in confusion as he watched her attend to the food that Mama J had started. Most of the victims had normally taken days off from work to relax after their incidents, but she was getting right back to work mere hours after being rescued.

"Don't disturb a mother in her zone, son," Mama J said sympathetically, resting a delicate hand on his arm. "It's a mother's job to always be there caring for her family even when she isn't feeling well and I've never seen someone so devoted to being a mother as Miss E is."

Reid looked at Mama J for a moment before he turned and head for the stairs, going up to Eglantine's office instead of a spare room like the rest of his team did. He wasn't for sure what he was going to do up there, but it was better than just sitting around and doing nothing while he waited for the team to get up and get going back to the office.

**Sorry it's been so long everyone! I was without a computer or even a phone for a few days and then it took me a bit to get back into all of my stories. On a brighter note, I'm hoping to start doing every Friday updates or at least every other Friday. All I know is that updates will start happening on Fridays.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! How right you are! Not going to say about what, but, yeah, you're right.**

"Dr. Reid."

Reid squirmed slightly at the sound of his name, having been enjoying his dream with Maeve once again. He hardly had the dream anymore, which saddened him, but he was always happy to see her whenever she did appear again. He frowned when his dream changed slightly, hearing his name being called once more. The room around him didn't change, though it felt different in a way that Reid couldn't place as he looked around.

"Dr. Reid," he heard someone call to him, looking back to Maeve because it sounded like the call had come from her. He was startled out of his dream at the sight the his eyes met, now wide awake and sitting up in the chair he had fallen asleep in. He blinked quickly, wishing to get rid of the sight of Eglantine smiling brightly at him where Maeve had been, though he knew the image would never go away now that he had seen it. Just another thing to add to the list of things Eglantine was gradually taking from him.

"Dr. Reid, your team wanted me to tell you that they were going on ahead to your office and that you should come along with me when I go over," Eglantine told him softly, making him looking up at her to see that she was smiling at him warmly. "I have some breakfast set aside for you if you want or I could make you something else if you don't want what I made."

Reid frowned at her, rubbing his eyes once again as he felt another headache begin to form. Eglantine frowned at him as she hesitantly reached out to touch his forehead when she saw the slight wince of pain.

"You have a slight fever, Dr. Reid," she murmured, feeling his hot forehead with just the tips of her fingers. Reid looked at her sourly, trying to move away from her touch only to have her hand follow him so she could make sure she was really feeling a temperature. Eglantine stepped back slightly and her frown deepened. "If you are going to act like a child, I have no qualms treating you like one, you know. If you are sick, you should let someone take care of you until you are better, not fight them when they try to help."

"I'm not sick," Reid protested, moving to stand but being forced back into his seat by Eglantine's hand pressing hard into his chest.

"I have a feeling you would say that even if you had pneumonia," Eglantine said, her eyes narrowed at him as she tried to gauge his reaction. "Stop trying to fight other's help, Dr. Reid. People are meant to help and be helped by one another. No one can live their whole lives without relying on someone else, genius or no."

Reid watched her straighten and turn to leave out of her office before she paused at the door and looked at him over her shoulder.

"And please ask next time you want to read my journal," she said before she disappeared out of the door and out of sight. Reid blinked at her, turning his head to look at the book serenely sitting on her desk like nothing was the matter. Reid slowly followed Eglantine down the stairs and watched as she picked up the small mess that had been formed by the children who had ate breakfast there.

"Why do you open your home to people?" Reid asked as he trailed behind her all the way to the kitchen, sitting at the counter as she began to clean up the mess from breakfast.

"Why do you not?" Eglantine replied with a small smile as she slid a plate over to him that had eggs and toast on it.

"Because there are people out there who want to hurt others," Reid answered, looking at the plate of breakfast skeptically as he pushed it away.

"And that's why I open my home to children," Eglantine said with emphasis on the last word, frowning as she watched him push the plate away. "I want to protect them from those who want to hurt them."

"Even though it puts you in more risk of being hurt yourself as you saw last night?" Reid questioned, trying to understand her logic.

"Not everything is about protecting yourself, Dr. Reid," Eglantine murmured as she turned back to the dishes. "I've always been known to be someone with intense maternal instincts. My friends have all called me a mama bear ever since high school."

"So you protect kids because you have maternal instincts?" Reid asked slowly in confusion.

"No, the maternal instincts just help," Eglantine laughed softly. "I protect kids because I want them to be happy and healthy. The children of today are the leaders of the world tomorrow."

Reid frowned at the sentiment, remaining silent as Eglantine finished up her cleaning and prepared to leave for the day. Eglantine paused at the calendar by the back door, drawing his attention away from his thoughts.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, wondering why she had stopped so suddenly. She turned to him with a bright smile and a motion to the door.

"Nothing at all," she said in a tone that made Reid believe that she was covering something up. She stood in front of the calendar so he couldn't see it as he came to the back door so they could leave. This action made Reid even more suspicious of what she was hiding as he slid into the passenger seat of her van.

"You should get a more efficient means of transportation," he commented as she pulled out carefully from the back driveway and headed for the highway that would take them to the FBI office.

"Nothing will carry a load of children more efficiently than this," Eglantine told him, motioning to the five rows of seating behind them. "And I'm not getting a bus. There's a bus stop not too far from here that most of the schools in the area drop at."

"Then why have this?" Reid asked in confusion, noticing that Eglantine was chewing on what he believed was her tongue by the way her cheek was pushed out. He frowned at the sight, trying to figure out if he thought that the habit was disgusting or unique.

"I used to take the kids to the museums and parks around where we lived, so a van was kinda necessary," Eglantine explained, patting the dash affectionately. "Then I just couldn't give her up during the move."

"Why don't you take them now?" Reid asked as they pulled into the FBI's parking garage.

"I don't know any museums around here," Eglantine admitted sheepishly. "We haven't been here for too long and I've been so busy establishing my business that I haven't had the chance to look into it."

"I know a few that you could take them to," Reid said after a moment, receiving a smile from Eglantine as they entered the elevator that would take them to the entrance of the building. The pair of doctors was surprised to see Morgan waiting just outside the bulding as they neared the entrance, a worried look clear on his face.

"What's wrong?" Eglantine asked as he strode over to them once he spotted them. "Did something happen with Ava?"

"No, we turned him over to local PD to handle it, but you need to leave," Morgan said quickly, looking between the two. "The new chief is here to do an inspection of the team. You were running so late that we already explained that you were sick today, Pretty Boy. If the chief catches sight of you, there may be some difficulties."

"What am I supposed to do then?" Reid asked, clearly surprised by Morgan's hurried words.

"I don't know man," Morgan sighed, laying a hand on Reid's shoulder. "If it was Strauss, Rossi would be able to talk his way out of you getting in trouble, but this new chief seems like an even more hard ass than Strauss was in the beginning."

"I'll take him back with me, then, since I'm not allowed in if he's not here," Eglantine said to Morgan, receiving a nod in return. "Though I do have a few stops to make."

"Pretty Boy ought not to mind. I have to get back. We'll meet up at your place later, alright Eglantine?" Morgan said, giving them a strained grin as he back pedaled towards the door. "Enjoy your day off."

"I'm not going home with you," Reid said flatly as the two stood there in front of the building. Eglantine looked at him with an amused smile playing on her lips.

"Come now, doctor, don't you want to see how I practice?" Eglantine said with a chuckle as she turned to head back to her van. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you are stuck with me since you don't have a vehicle."

Reid slowly followed after her, grumbling something about how he should just take the bus home.


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! Eglantine knows everything that happens in her home, so of course she would know he was reading her journal. Just going to say, it's getting a bit difficult to reply to your reviews when I'm two or three chapters ahead in writing and don't want to spoil any of the good fun coming up by letting something slip.**

"Miss E!" a little boy cheered happily at the first stop the two had made. They were in an elementary school's counselling office and had just checked in with the school's secretary so they could get ID stickers to let everyone know who they were. Several other kids looked up at the boy's cheer to see Eglantine and Reid walk into the office.

"Hello everyone," Eglantine greeted the kids as they stood to run to her side. "Who wants to meet a very special guest?"

The kids began to ask who it was that they were meeting, causing Eglantine to laugh. As Reid observed her, he realized that dealing with kids genuinely seemed to make her happy if the bright smile on her face was any indication at all to her true mood.

"Dr. Reid? Would you like to join us from your thoughts?" He was startled from his observations by Eglantine smiling at him with the kids all looking at him in awe. He paused, thinking back to what his ears had heard while he was thinking only to remember that she had just introduced him as a doctor and a genius.

"Dawckter Weid, do you, do you know effwything?" a little girl who looked no older than five asked him, her eyes so wide with amazement that they almost looked comical.

"Not everything, no," Reid answered, frowning when the girl looked disappointed. "But I do know more about things than most of your parents do."

"But Mommy and Daddy know effwything!" the girl gasped in surprise before she squealed and latched onto Reid's hand. "Can you teich us, Dawckter Weid?"

"Dr. Reid is only here to observe us, Emily," Eglantine told the girl before she turned to look at Reid. "Unless he wants to participate in our activities that is."

"Pleeeeeaaaassse," little Emily begged him. Reid couldn't help but fidget at the pleading look that the little girl was giving him and had to nod his consent after a few moments of her look. The kids cheered as they shifted almost as one to go into one of the rooms.

"Don't feel too bad for giving in," Eglantine consoled him as she led him into the colorful room that the children were sitting dutifully in. "I don't know anyone who could say no to Emily when she brings out her pout."

"Miss E, let's do math today!" one of the boys called out when she stepped into the room to see him holding up a folder with MATH written clearly on the front.

"No! Read us a book!" a girl called out, holding up the thick book she wanted Eglantine to read.

"How about we do some crafts instead?" Eglantine suggested, holding back a smile at the kids' disappointed faces. "A craft that involves math and reading?"

The two kids' faces lit up immediately at her suggestion, making her chuckle as she turned to the tall desk in the room. Reid hesitantly sat down on a cushion around the low set table with the kids, unsure of what to do since he never had to really deal with kids other than on cases or when he visited Henry.

"What kind of doctor are you?" the girl who had wanted to read asked him, looking up at him with large eyes hidden behind glasses. "A dentist or a pet doctor or a people doctor?"

"He's none of those things," Eglantine informed them as she knelt at the table with a lot of crafting supplies in a bucket. She placed the bucket at the center of the table and Reid was quite surprised when none of the children reached out to grab the colorful materials. "He's a type of doctor that knows a lot about different things about science and math, not medicine. He knows so much about those things, he even works for the FBI to help kids just like you when bad people want to hurt them."

"You're a superhero," one of the boys gasped, looking at Reid in awe.

"Technically a superhero has to have super powers," Reid said with a frown.

"But you're so smart, that's like a super power, right Miss E?" the boy said with a frown, looking at Eglantine hopefully. "You always tell us that we don't need special powers to be a hero so long as we help out others."

"That is very right," Eglantine smiled warmly at the boy. "You remember things very well, Ian. Now who wants to start making yourself a monster?"

"A m-monstew?" Emily whimpered, crawling into Reid's lap and surprising the grown man. He moved to take her out of his lap before he noticed that she was clinging to his shirt tightly and looked genuinely scared.

"Don't worry, Emily. You will be making this monster, so it will only be as scary as you want it to be," Eglantine soothed the child as she brought out a small sheet of paper.

"Will you help me Dawckter Weid?" Emily asked, looking up at him with those same pleading eyes that got him before. Reid looked away from the little girl for a moment before he looked back hesitantly to see that she was still looking at him pleadingly while the other kids started grabbing supplies.

"Alright," Reid sighed in agreement, receiving a bright smile not only from the little girl in his lap, but also from Eglantine as she helped the children divide up the supplies equally. Reid soon found himself enjoying the little game that Eglantine had brought out to create the little monsters. There was just enough structure in it that he didn't get bored having to think up everything, but there was enough freedom to choose colors and shapes and things that the little girl in his lap showed clear signs that she was enjoying herself as she instructed him on how to make certain parts of their monster.

When the group was finished with their project somewhere around a hour later, Reid and Emily had a pink and red monster with sharp fangs and a lot of googly eyes and ribbon tipped spikes. It was strange how good their monster actually looked after their very conflicting ideas of how the monster should look. Eglantine had each of the children write their names on the monsters before she dismissed them to go back to their normal classes. Reid waited by the door as she cleaned up their mess and said good bye to the kids.

"Dawckter," Emily said, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. He looked down at the little girl to see her holding up the monster they had made together. "You haf it."

"But it was your project," Reid said softly, making no move to take the picture.

"Membwer me," Emily said, holding out the picture insistently. Reid felt like explaining to the little girl that he couldn't forget her or anyone else for that matter because of his memory, but pushed the feeling to the side as he took the picture from her with a soft smile. He had never received something from a kid he interacted with that wasn't Henry. He was a bit surprised to see Emily's hand still out, except that it was balled up with her pinkie pointed at him. "Pinkie pwomise?"

"Of course," Reid said, linking his pinkie with the girl's and feeling very foolish for indulging the child in her silly symbol of a promise. "I won't forget."

Emily nodded, smiling brightly at him before she turned to go grab her things and hurry after the other leaving kids.

"You were very good with Emily," Eglantine commented as she came up to him. Reid looked at her to see that she had an amused look on her face. "And here I thought you would be the type to not like kids."

"It's not that I don't like them," Reid admitted with a shrug as he followed her out of the school and to her van once more. "I just don't have much experience with them so I don't know how to act."

"Kids are very perceptive, Dr. Reid," Eglantine said knowledgeably as she pulled off onto the highway once more. "They understand what is around them even if they don't fully comprehend it. All of those kids knew you didn't know how to act around them, Emily was just the one who decided to do something about it."

Reid was quiet as he stared out the window, processing what she had just said along with his time with those children.

**I'm updating a day earlier than normal because I'm moving into my dorm on Saturday so tomorrow is going to be spent to prepare and say good bye to family. Hope no one minds, things will hopefully go back to normal next week.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! I've always seen Reid as one to have a soft spot for kids even if he is awkward around them. **

**Thank you tannerose5 for reviewing! Maybe Reid should have one what?**

After several more stops just like that first one, Reid began to see a pattern with Eglantine's visits to the schools. The children that were pulled out of normal class to visit with her were all exceptionally bright children in their own ways, though none of them seemed to be able to stand much instruction from her. There was one kid that he saw use the cotton balls and pipe cleaners they had been using on the monster project to create a perfect replica of a DNA strand. When Reid asked where he had come up with that, the boy just shrugged and said that he saw it in a book. And then there was another who had been able to exactly replicate the rhythm he had been boredly tapping on the table when Eglantine had been gathering new supplies. Even when Reid had tested the girl with various rhythms, she had been able to accurately tap out the same patterns as him without even having to be prompted.

"Who were all of these kids?" Reid finally asked when they were leaving a school to head for their final stop of the day. Eglantine glanced at him as she unlocked the van with a smile.

"Prodigies," she answered proudly. "Before I started this program, all of these children had been disruptive in their classrooms, but weren't seen as ADHD or ADD. They simply had no interest in instruction and would much rather do their various little quirks instead. I interviewed every single one of them myself and found that they were just trying to bring out their hidden abilities in whatever way they could. Now, I visit each school to help the kids use their skills in more productive ways."

Reid thought back to each of the kids with a frown before he realized that each of them really did seem to have a talent. The boy at the first school who liked math could answer math problems just as quickly as he could while the girl who liked to read was like a walking dictionary and could give a definition to any word when prompted. But Emily hadn't seemed to be more than an average preschooler, so why had she been there?

"Emily wasn't skilled," Reid finally pointed out almost sadly, making Eglantine chuckle.

"She is very skilled actually, but today wasn't her day to shine," Eglantine informed him. "She is a very skilled musician and has been able to play any instrument I've handed her with a skill level of someone who has been playing for years."

"That is strange," Reid murmured, trying to think of how that could be.

"It is, but it isn't something that you need to explain when the children don't even know themselves how they do what they do," Eglantine murmured as she began to exit the highway to their final stop. "That's why I encourage them talking about heroes, so they know that they can be heroes in their own way with their own powers."

Reid nodded slightly in understanding before being jerked forward as Eglantine suddenly hit the brakes. His head shot first to her panicked state and then to the school in front of them where what looked to be the entire school was out on the lawns with police vehicles littering the parking lot. Reid immediately recognized the two SUVs used by his team and turned to point them out to Eglantine only to see her already out of the van and hurrying towards the school. Reid hurried after her and managed to catch up to her right when she was being stopped by a pair of local law enforcement.

"She's with me," he said, bringing out his FBI badge, thankful he still had it on him instead of stowed away in his bag in the van with his gun. The two officers looked at the badge and then at each other before they allowed them through.

"Thank you," Eglantine managed to squeak, worry clear on her face as she scanned the crowds of students for familiar faces. Reid took hold of her arm to make sure she didn't run off as he made his way to where his team should have been gathered. Sure enough, they were standing at a command center right where he figured it would be.

"What are you two doing here?" Morgan asked, spotting the two and causing the others to look away from the work to see who was approaching.

"Eglantine works here on occasion," Reid answered nonchalantly as he looked around briefly to gather what he could of what was happening. "What's going on?"

"One of the teachers locked themselves in their room with a group of twenty kids," Hotch answered, handing Reid a file. "He claims that he isn't coming out until he gets what he wants and that he will hurt one of the kids every hour if he doesn't get what he wants by tonight."

"What does he want?" Reid asked, placing down the teacher's file as if he hadn't even read it only to have Eglantine scoop it up so she could see who the teacher is.

"He wants his son to come here and talk to him," Rossi informed the much younger agent before he motioned to the computer in front of them to show that Garcia was at work searching for anything that could help them. "But Garcia isn't having any luck finding him and we only have five minutes left before he hurts the first kid."

"He won't hurt them," Eglantine told them quietly, drawing their attention to her. Eglantine fidgeted slightly under their intense gaze, but motioned with the file in her hand. "I know Jesse and have worked with him before. He's as meek and pacifistic as you can get."

"He's a former drug dealer that somehow slipped through the security check to start teaching," Blake countered, unsure if they could trust Eglantine's input.

"But he would never hurt a child," Eglantine insisted. "I've talked to Jesse about his past and it's something he deeply regrets. He has never hurt a child and never would hurt one. They're a bit of his weakness whenever he's violent."

"So you can promise that we won't be hearing a kid scream in pain if we wait out the next few minutes?" Hotch questioned her calculatingly. Eglantine looked up at him and nodded confidently. Hotch looked at her for a moment longer before turning to the computer. "Take your time Garcia, we are going to wait him out."

"If it helps, try his past girlfriends for sons," Eglantine suggested, wanting to help as much as she could with what she knew about their Unsub. "I don't think Jesse has a biological child, let alone a son."

"I'll do what I can. Good luck Super Sleuths, Gracia out," the tech analyst called to them before closing the webcam window so they could all concentrate on their work.

Before they could do much more than move towards the table to regroup, the phone at the center of the table began to ring. The agents looked at each other for a moment before Rossi decided to pick it up and answer the call.

"Did you find him yet?" a frantic male voice that Eglantine recognized to be Jesse's came from the other end of the line. "You have one minute left to let me talk to him before I hurt one of these kids."

"It's taking a lot longer than we were anticipating since we don't have a name to go by," Rossi told him relatively honestly, glancing around the circle to see his fellow agents' stony gazes and Eglantine's worried one. "Maybe if you give us a name, we can find him faster and get him to you."

"No, no, that's not how this is going to work," Jesse said after a moment's pause. "You have to find him yourself. I know you have the resources to do so all on your own."

"Jesse," Eglantine murmured and Reid gave her a warning look to not continue so she wouldn't accidentally be heard. Eglantine frowned before she shook her head, knowing she didn't have to take orders from him even if they were at a crime scene. "Jesse, please let the kids go. This isn't like you."

"Eglantine?" Jesse murmured, clearly confused before there was a pause. "Trade yourself for them then. That's the only option I'm giving them, E. You and you alone come in and then I'll let the kids out."

The phone hung up then and the agents all seemed to give a silent sigh in relief that a kid wasn't going to be hurt. Eglantine frowned at the phone before she turned and started heading for the school.

"Where are you going, Doc?" Morgan asked, catching her arm as she moved to pass by him. Eglantine gave him a pointed look, causing his grip on her arm to tighten. "You aren't going in there without some kind of wire so we know if you are in danger."

"You aren't a trained agent, so you shouldn't be going in there at all," Blake said, trying to reason with the young doctor. Eglantine looked at the group before she spotted the concerned look on JJ's face and decided to direct her reasoning towards the young mother.

"Which do you think will be worse to lose if Jesse has really been pushed to the edge? Me, a single doctor with zippo to leave behind, or a whole classroom full of children who have their whole futures before them?" Eglantine asked softly, trying to show she wasn't worried about going in there even though her insides were a mess with fear. "I already have a relationship with Jesse and am a trained psychologist that knows how to get information out of people, so who better to switch with those kids in hopes of ending this peacefully? And, if you can't, just make sure you get him if I'm going to be shot too."

"We aren't going to shoot you, Doc," Morgan said in a hard tone, clearly trying to mask his concern for her. It always hit Morgan hard when one of his teammates tried to go into a hostage situation, but at least they were all trained agents, this woman wasn't.

"Just do what you have to," Eglantine murmured before she turned back to the school to start the trek to the classroom that she had visited so many times before. She didn't even glance back as Rossi and Hotch decided to flank her on her trip to the room.

"We should at least put a wire on you so we can hear everything that's going on," Rossi tried to reason with her, almost sighing in relief when she paused in her path. Eglantine turned back to him thoughtfully.

"I don't want him to know that someone else is listening," she finally said, giving them the okay to call over one of their field techs to start putting the wire on. "I'm risking my career here, you know. If he finds out that whatever he says isn't in confidence and protected by patient privileges, he might turn on me and give me nothing you can work with."

"Let's put it under your shirt then," the tech said a little too eagerly for either of the older men's liking. Thankfully Eglantine shook her head at his suggestion before either of them could remind the agent about his decency.

"He'll think to check me. He used to run an illegal business, remember?" she said, taking the small mic from the tech much to his surprise. Eglantine turned towards one of their SUVs and started using it as a mirror to put the mic in her hair pin. "He won't think about searching my hair for one though."

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Hotch asked as they began to escort her towards the classroom once again after making sure that the feed from the mic was clear. Eglantine sighed as she paused just around the corner from the room.

"I wouldn't have agreed to it if I couldn't," she said before slipping around the corner. The two men couldn't quite make out what she was saying, but, next thing they knew, the classroom worth of children came running, terrified around the corner. The two men quickly made sure that all of the kids were there before escorting them out of the building and to their waiting parents, hoping to escort Eglantine out much the same.


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! Eh, this is Reid, so I'm not sure how well acts of bravery impact him. I loved writing him with little Emily. Just picturing Reid with kids is adorable. **

"Where's my mom?" Jarrell barked a few hours later as he arrived on the scene. The team wasn't sure how he had made it through the barricade and to their command center, but that didn't stop them from trying to keep him away.

"Your mother is safe," Blake said, reaching out to grab the boy's shoulder so she could guide him away from the scene, but gripped air instead as he moved around her to the table.

"-ing is your fault," he heard his mother's voice come through over the speaker that had been giving the team their insight into the classroom and what was happening between the two inside.

"Wha-," Jarrell was about to ask something when another thought cut himself off and making him round angrily on the team. "You let her go in there? What kind of FBI agents are you to let a civilian become a hostage?"

"It wasn't our choice to make," JJ told him, the teen's anger only bringing out her own disappointment with herself for not fighting to keep the young mother out of the situation. "She decided to do it on her own."

"And six armed federal agents couldn't have persuaded her otherwise?" Jarrell yelled at her before he stopped and ran his hand over his suddenly tired looking face. "That woman is going to be the death of me."

"You see why we couldn't do anything?" JJ wondered, a small smile playing at her lips at how much the teen really did seem to know his mother.

"Yeah, she's too damn stubborn about protecting kids," Jarrell muttered as he began listening to his mother's conversation. "She's not getting anywhere with him."

"How do you know?" Hotch asked, having believed that she was doing quite well to keep their Unsub calm and talking about himself.

"It's the questions she uses," Jarrell shrugged, still listening intently to his mother try to work her magic. "There's certain ones she only uses when she knows a kid isn't about to talk about their real issues."

"And you're sure she is using those?" Rossi asked him, receiving a nod from the young man.

"She used the same ones with me when I first started seeing her for help," Jarrell admitted a bit sheepishly, listening in until he heard a loud slap and a cry of pain. "Damn it Mom! That question was too far!"

"What did she say wrong?" Morgan asked, his whole team on edge after hearing Eglantine get struck but unsure as to what had gone wrong.

"She jumped script and asked why he was doing all of this," Jarrell explained, looking pained as he heard his adoptive mother's sniffles.

"I just want to understand why you decided to do this so suddenly," Eglantine said quietly, though her voice came through quite clearly to the mic. "I know you Jes and this isn't something you would do for no reason."

"You don't know me! No one here knows me!" the Unsub yelled at her angrily, causing Jarrell to grip the table until his knuckles turned white. "All you see is an ex druggy and that's all anyone will ever see!"

"She got through," Jarrell sighed, his grip relaxing slightly on the table as he looked around the uneasy group.

"Are you absolutely sure she got through? She's only been in there for a hour," Hotch questioned, receiving a firm nod from Jarrell.

"Mom is amazing like that," Jarrell told him, a small proud smile forming on his lips as he listened for his mother's response though there didn't seem to be any. "She can get anyone to open up once she gets a feeling of how to get them worked up. Jesse's means is apparently anger."

"Jesse, I may see that you were once addicted to drugs, but I only see that so I can see just how far you've come to be where you are now," Eglantine said in a soft, soothing voice as her accent became a tad thicker with her emotions. "You are a strong man that cares deeply for the people around him. Your past wasn't all your choosing, but this current life is and your future is too."

"What do you mean my future?" Jesse scoffed. "You think they're going to just let me walk out of here after all of this?"

"You actually haven't done much wrong," Eglantine murmured soothingly. "At this point, all you've done is bring a gun on campus and strike me, but you know I'm not about to charge you for assault."

"So you're saying I could just walk out of here?" Jesse wondered and the profilers could all hear the bit of hope in his voice.

"You'll have to pay the fines for bringing a gun on campus and may have to do some time for endangering a classroom full of children, but I'm sure it won't be anything too big," Eglantine reassured him. "Nothing you couldn't handle at least."

There was a pause in the feed and the team were beginning to believe that this whole incident might actually end peacefully when they heard the gun go off. The team immediately jumped into action and bolted for the school along with many of the other officers that had gathered at the school. The agents didn't slow to a walk until they reached the hallway that the classroom was in, inching forward quickly yet quietly as they heard the sniffles of someone trying to stop crying. The door burst open on them and they all brought their guns up to the ready, just in case it was Jesse coming out to shoot everyone he could or escape.

"What are you waiting for? Get the hell in here and help!" Jesse yelled at them once he spotted all of the officers. He was kneeling beside Eglantine, who had been shot in thigh right by the door. She looked like she was in a great amount of pain as Jesse pushed down hard on her thigh to keep her from bleeding as much. The team of agents hurried forward, Rossi and Morgan breaking off from the team to grab Jesse and put him in handcuffs. They were surprised that he went so willingly and that his eyes never left Eglantine as Hotch lifted her up to help the paramedics get her onto a stretcher.

"Everything just has to happen to you, doesn't it?" Hotch asked, trying to smile as he and, surprisingly enough, Reid hurried beside the stretcher as it made its way out to a waiting ambulance.

"Raped and shot by two different people in a twelve hour period. Must be a record, huh?" Eglantine tried to joke, but the whimper of pain that escaped her lips as the stretcher jostled her leg ruined the joke as it left her lips. Eglantine grabbed Hotch's sleeve as the paramedics prepared the stretcher to lift into the ambulance. "Don't be too hard on him. This was an accident and he was about to turn himself over."

Hotch looked at her pleading look for a moment before he nodded, closing the doors so they could head off to the nearest hospital. With a small sigh, Hotch turned back to Reid so they could go back to their team and deal with this Unsub who wasn't really an Unsub.


	15. Chapter 15

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! I love writing Jarrell, he's like a calmer version of Eglantine. I hope things aren't going too slow between Reid and Eglantine for everyone. Their relationship will get there, I promise.**

**Thank you Caseybell313 for reviewing! Thank you so much for believing I'm writing Reid right! That's always my biggest worry while writing fanfictions.**

"Damn it Morgan, if you're going to help then listen to Jarrell!" Eglantine barked at the large FBI agent from her spot on her couch a few days later. After being shot and going through surgery, Eglantine had been ordered not to walked around and do anything so the wound wouldn't open up again. Eglantine was happy with those orders only because her leg hurt horribly and she couldn't imagine what it would be like if she tried to put pressure on that leg. On the other hand, the no walking order also meant that she couldn't do her normal work at home or go in to the BAU office to observe Reid without having someone come and get here, so one Agent Derek Morgan had decided that he and Reid would help her out. On a normal day where she could supervise their work, Eglantine would be happy to have the volunteers, but, as it is now, she was stuck on the couch while they were free to go about and do what they wanted in her home while Jarrell, the poor boy, had to go behind them and correct everything.

"All I was doing was getting the kids a snack," Morgan complained as he was shooed out of the kitchen along with the group of little boys that had been following him around since he had got there. "They said they were hungry."

"Little boys are always hungry, Morgan," Eglantine explained with a sigh as she motioned for him to join her on the couch. "But I have a strict schedule for when they can eat, so they don't ruin their appetites later on. Jarrell knows the schedule for everything that goes on in this house, so, if you want to do something, check with him first."

"Nah, I'm done for now," Morgan said as he flopped down on the couch with a yawn. "Who knew a bunch of kids could wear you out faster than any Unsub?"

"I could have told you that," Eglantine laughed as the boys tried to jump on Morgan, but cowered away under a sharp glare that came from their caretaker. Once the boys had shuffled from the room to go play outside in the little bit of time that they had left, Eglantine glanced around with a frown. "Where did Reid end up going?"

"Pretty Boy was upstairs last time I saw him," Morgan said, glancing towards where the stairwell would be through the wall. "Not sure what he was doing though."

"Any idea what room he was in?" Eglantine asked, her frown growing at the idea of him wandering around in the bedrooms when she hadn't had a chance to clean them since Jarrell got kidnapped so many days ago.

"He was staring at the door to the one across the hall from Jarrell's," Morgan said, looking over at the worried woman curiously. "He seemed a bit agitated. Any idea who's room that is and why it would agitate him like that?"

"That's my room," Eglantine murmured thoughtfully, unsure of what to make of him being agitated at her room. "Is he upset with me?"

"He didn't want to come with me when I told him where we were going," Morgan shrugged, seeing her face turn sad and disappointed. "I don't think it's you though."

"He doesn't like me Derek," Eglantine pointed out sadly. "He's my first patient to not like me so wholeheartedly."

"I don't think he dislikes you, E," Morgan said, trying to sooth the woman's worries, but not really having a clue of what to say since he didn't know his friend's feelings himself. "I just think he's trying to rebel against all of us for making him spend so much time with you. He hasn't really had an option every time he's seen you."

"That's true," Eglantine murmured, continuing to frown as she thought. "Get out."

"W-What?" Morgan questioned, perplexed by the demand.

"Get out," Eglantine repeated nonchalantly, sighing when she noticed that he didn't seem like he was going to move. "I take pride in the fact that my patients want to come see me, Derek. If you keep forcing him, Dr. Reid won't even want to come see me and he needs to have that mentality if I'm ever going to get somewhere with him."

Derek thought about what she said for a moment before he nodded and stood.

"I'll stop bringing him by until he wants to come back, but I'm still coming back to help out, okay?" Morgan said, smiling slightly at the young woman before him and receiving a bright smile in return.

"That sounds great actually," she said before shooing him out of her living room. Morgan called good bye to the kids as he passed the kitchen they were crowded in for some reason before he headed up the stairs to go find Reid. After quite a bit of searching, Morgan finally found the genius asleep on the bed in the room he had been staring at earlier. Morgan would have laughed once he remembered that was Eglantine's bed if it wasn't for the fact that it would have waken up the soundly snoozing younger man and Morgan knew that he would not be happy to wake up on Eglantine's bed. Instead of waking him, Morgan hooked his arms underneath the light weight man and lifted him from the bed. Pausing to make sure he hadn't woken Reid up, Morgan made note of just how light his best friend really was. Promising himself to talk to the team about it tomorrow, Morgan hurried from the room before Reid could get the chance to wake up.


	16. Chapter 16

**Thank you Savage Kill for reviewing! Eventually things will tie back to her parents, but that's a long way off. Sorry about the shortish chapter, I'm busy with school, so I can't write as much to keep up with my weekly updates. Yeah, Eglantine is having some issues relying on people to do everything for her. **

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! Reid will want to talk to her soon enough, don't worry. Morgan always seems like an awesome big brother figure to me, so that's kinda how I'm trying to portray him. **

**Thank you tannerose5 for your PM! She is a joy to write! You'll be happy later on if you enjoy Reid with children, but I'm not going to say why.**

As promised, Morgan didn't drag Reid with him to Eglantine's house after work the next day, which was a pleasant surprise for the young doctor. He had spent the evening catching up on the stack of books he had yet to read at his house instead of listening to the scream of kids as they played. It was a very enjoyable break for Reid and he was grateful that he hadn't been forced to go there yet again.

The day after that was when Reid's suspicions started. Morgan had said good bye to all of them at the end of the day like he always did and Reid was prepared to be dragged along to Eglantine's house after his refreshing break, but was surprised yet again when Morgan left without even mentioning Reid coming along with him. It was then that Reid realized that Morgan was probably up to something and he had to figure out what it was.

On what ended up being his third day off, Reid made sure to be ready to go extra early so he could walk out with Morgan. Morgan seemed a bit surprised to see Reid so eager to leave, but didn't question it once he realized that Eglantine's plan was unfolding much more quickly than Morgan had originally thought.

"You have plans this evening Pretty Boy?" Morgan asked him cheerfully as they waited for the elevator together, smirking slightly since he figured that Reid knew by now what was going on.

"Nothing definite," Reid replied, watching Morgan and seeing the smirk which only made him more suspicious that something really was going on that he was missing. "Do you have another date tonight?"

"I haven't had a date in a week," Morgan said, grinning at the younger agent's confused look. Morgan slipped into the elevator once it arrived and quickly had it close on Reid, wanting him to figure out things on his own and then sweat about it. As Eglantine had said, no one should have to force Reid to see her and he needs to figure out that he wants to see her on his own.

The fourth day was their actual day off from work and Eglantine had put together a small picnic in her backyard for all of the kids in the neighborhood. Morgan was a tad bit excited to go, especially after sampling a bit of Eglantine's cooking the day before while helping her make dinner for the group of kids staying over for the picnic. He had hoped that Reid would have called him to come get him by the time the picnic started, but was disappointed when he didn't even make any attempt to contact him. Morgan was quickly distracted though when a bunch of the boys, led by Jarrell, invited him to play some basketball on their small court. Morgan had to admit it to himself that he was curious to see how the one armed teen played without the use of both hands.

"Room for a few more?" an oddly familiar voice called to them, making Morgan's focus on the game drop so he could turn to see his team standing at the gate.

"What are you guys doing here?" Morgan asked, throwing the ball to one of his teammates before striding to the gate to let them in. It was odd seeing them all here, even including Will, Henry, Jack, and Beth.

"Eglantine invited me and told me to bring whatever members of the team I wanted," Garcia said, smiling brightly at him with a bit of a lecherous look mixed in. It was then that Morgan realized just how sweaty he had become while running around with the kids and he grinned back at his tech goddess.

"I'm glad you guys could make it," Eglantine said as she hobbled over to them with Jarrell's help. Morgan expertly slipped his arm around her on her free side to help Jarrell support her and keep her off of her injured leg. "We should have plenty of food left, but I can always make more if you need something. There's basketball out here and board games inside since, apparently, it's too hot out."

"We're from Texas, Mama, you know we're used to massive amounts of heat," Jarrell chuckled at his adoptive mother's grumbling tone. Eglantine rolled her eyes at her son before scanning the group, being pleasantly surprised to see Reid there in the back of the group.

"I don't think I've met these two fine young sirs," she said, bending over to be eye level with Jack and Henry instead of kneeling down like she normally would.

"I'm Jack," the older boy greeted cheerfully, clutching onto Hotch's hand so Eglantine could only assume that he was the older man's son.

"Henry," JJ introduced her own son with a soft smile before motioning to the man beside her. "And my husband, Will."

"Pleasure to meet you, m'am," Will said, holding out his hand to her.

"'Bout time I met another Southerner that moved here," Eglantine said as she took his hand with a large smile. "N'Orlens?"

"Yes, m'am," Will said, smiling slightly at the younger woman's accent.

"Bit south of Houston," Eglantine said, patting Jarrell's back. "Both of us born and raised on the Texas coast."

Eglantine, with Jarrell's help, led them into her yard before being deposited in one of the lawn chairs so she could keep off of her thigh.

"How are you managing?" JJ asked, pulling up another lawn chair beside the younger brunette.

"I'd like to get back on my feet again, but my doctor won't let me since the wound was so close to an artery," Eglantine sighed as she leaned back and Jarrell brought her a drink. "I don't like being waited on."

"You should be back on your feet soon enough," Hotch said, standing in a position that made him loom over Eglantine. "Then you can come back into the office."

"Is someone missing me?" Eglantine teased, laughing softly at Hotch's glare.

"You have a job to do, Dr. Schaffer," Hotch said pointedly as Eglantine glanced around. She frowned when she noticed both Reid and Morgan missing from their group. Eglantine struggled slightly to stand from the chair until Jarrell hooked his arm around her waist to help her to stand.

"Where you trying to go, Mama?" Jarrell asked as the two settled into a standing position.

"Just inside to check up on everyone," Eglantine said innocently, receiving a raised eyebrow from her adopted son. "Nearly everyone is inside with no supervision, so I think it's about time we check up on them to make sure no one has been injured."

"They're just playing games, right? What could go wrong?" Garcia asked as the team slowly followed their hobbling host into the house.

"You'd be surprised," JJ laughed softly, remembering all the times she had left Henry alone with his friends in their living room only to come back to a massive mess.

"Please ignore the mess in the living room," Eglantine said as they passed through the room, which looked impeccably clean to the profilers as they looked around. "There isn't normally my work down here, but I'm not allowed to go upstairs yet, so I've had to move everything down here to me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Doc," Morgan said as he came into the room from the direction they were heading in. "Your house is always perfectly clean."

"You don't see the little details I do," Eglantine pointed out, welcoming his help as he slipped his arm around her once more. "There's far too much paperwork and books laying around that should be up in my office."

"I think you're the one seeing things," Morgan teased, flicking the woman's glasses. Eglantine scowled at him and pushed him playfully towards the dining room.

"My vision is fine," Eglantine snapped at him grumpily. "Just cause my glasses are thick, doesn't mean I can't see."

"Says the woman that should be going blind in one eye very soon," Jarrell scoffed, giving his mother a knowing look. Eglantine grumbled under her breath, wishing she could push her son away too so she could avoid the topic of her going blind.

"You have to talk about that now?" she asked, glancing at him with narrow eyes. "My boss doesn't need to know that."

"He does actually," Hotch said, his interest piqued by the insight that the much younger woman was going blind. "It could affect your performance, so it's something you should have told me from the start."

"My left eye has a disease in it," Eglantine sighed, shooting a glare at her son before addressing Hotch and the others again. "The muscles in and around my eye are slowly dieing, so I'm losing vision because my eye can't process everything it should. Before anyone asks, I'm not avoiding treatment for this, there just isn't any for this particular vision issue. I can see enough to work, it's just certain things I can't see when they are outside of my vision's range."

"Will you be okay?" Garcia asked worriedly. She knew a lot about having vision problems, but she had never heard of a disease that made eyes weaker. Eglantine gave her a weak smile.

"I will be fine," she said softly. "I've always been told that I will be blond by the time I'm thirty, but here I am with vision and thirty has come and gone."

"Miss E," someone said hesitantly, edging into the room and drawing their attention. "Someone's here to see you."


	17. Chapter 17

**Thank you Savage Kill for reviewing! It's not that I like it, I'm just trying to be accurate about everything. The disease she has is actually the one I have in one of my eyes, the other stuff like getting shot is just a risk she has from the job she does.**

**Thank you Sue1313 for reviewing! He probably was in her room or office again. They're soothing places, so he may like them over the rest of the house. I've always seen Hotch as the stern, but caring dad of the group, so he's just transferring that onto their newest and least trained member.**

"Who's that, dear?" Eglantine asked with a soft smile towards the little girl that was supposed to be a signal that everything was alright. The little girl fidgeted as a slender hand was placed on her head with a chipped manicure and gaudy rings that Eglantine immediately recognized.

"A-Aron!" she squeaked, grabbing a pillow to place in front of her defensively as if that would make a good shield. The team around her jumped into defense with hands at the ready on their guns for the few that had actually brought their's with them as the transgender woman strolled in.

"Why hello there, my dear, how have you been?" Ava said in a fake cheery voice as she ran a hand through her mousy looking hair. "I heard you were shot, you poor thing."

"Get out of here Aron," Rossi said in a warning tone, stepping in front of Eglantine and eyeing the little girl that was in the woman's grasp. "There's a restraining order out against you, so you aren't supposed to be anywhere near this building let alone in it."

"There's a restraining order out on Aron Fletching, not Ava," Aron said in a triumphant tone as he smiled at them serenely. "I've come to check on my dearest best friend since I heard that she was shot."

"Take one step towards her and you'll regret it," Jarrel threatened, tightening his grip on his mother.

"Oh come now, Jarrel honey, you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt your dear mama," Aron said in his high falsetto, laughing like Jarrel had been joking with him.

"You have hurt her!" Jarrel yelled at him angrily, receiving a hurt look from Ava.

"That wasn't me who did that to her!" Ava wailed, covering her face with her free hand and giving a dry sob. "I love Eglantine dearly like she is my sweet little sister. Some kind of monster did those things to her, not me!"

"Cut the crap Aron and just leave with the minor offense that you've done," Hotch barked at the man that sadly shared his name.

"But I can't," Ava sobbed, her hand slipping slightly down her face so they could see the dark look in her eyes. "I need Eglantine."

Everyone was stunned when Aron was tackled to the side and out of sight and their surprise only grew when they saw that it had been Reid to tackle her and now wrestle her in an attempt to pin her to the ground.

"Spence!" JJ cried as the team rushed forward to help their youngest when Aron's fist slammed hard in Reid's face. Rossi quickly grabbed the little girl that had essentially been a hostage and pushed her back towards Jarrel and Eglantine as the team passed her to circle around Reid and Aron's fight, none of them quite sure what to do as the two continue to roll around and swap hits. When the grunts of them fighting began to escalate into insults, Hotch stepped forward and grabbed Reid to pull him up off Aron as Will moved to grab Aron so she couldn't escape.

"You stupid, weak nerd! You ruined my face!" Aron screamed at Reid as the two were straightened by the older and stronger men. Aron was quite right about Reid ruining her face since there was a spot on her cheek that looked like it would soon develop into a nice bruise. Reid didn't look much better with a bloody nose and bruising around his eye that would soon develop into a black eye. "How am I supposed to work with a ruined face?"

"You aren't supposed to be working anyway," Reid pointed out calmly as he waved Hotch off and glared at the tranny. "You are a convicted sex offender, you are not supposed to be working as a child therapist."

"How many times must I explain that it is Aron that did those things, not me?" Aron said, rolling her eyes. "I'm Ava, not a monster."

"You're a monster and you very well know it," Eglantine said as Jarrel helped her hobble over to the group. The team's eyes seemed to widen as one when she pulled a small knife from her sleeve. Ava looked surprised and scared as Eglantine brandished the knife towards her. "I advise you leave now before I evoke my right to protect my home from unwanted visitors."

"You wouldn't dare," Ava hissed, though she still looked worried as Eglantine's grip tightened on the handle of her blade.

"You know as well as I do just how good I am with knives, Ava," Eglantine said in a tired, but stern tone. "I don't miss my targets and I would rather not make you a target."

Ava seemed to think about her options for a moment before she jerked her arm from Will's grasp and headed for the door.

"I'm sorry we couldn't talk like civilized people," she said as she left, slamming the door behind her. Eglantine sighed and slumped against the door frame tiredly, letting her grip on her knife slacken considerably.

"You okay?" JJ asked, placing a comforting hand on the younger woman's shoulder. Eglantine nodded and held out her hand to Jarrel.

"Just let me get back to the couch for a bit," Eglantine murmured, expecting her son to take up her hand and was surprised when it was Reid to do so. The rest of the BAU team shared looks as Reid helped Eglantine back to the couch before the team decided to head to other side of the house where all of the children were. Eglantine glanced around when she sat down, frowning when she saw that the team was no where in sight. Her attention was caught by Reid again when he sat down beside her. "Thank you for taking care of Ava for me, Dr. Reid."

"You don't have to call me doctor," Reid said quietly, looking down at his hands in his lap. Eglantine hesitated for a moment before she reached out and placed her hand over one of his. Reid glanced up at her in confusion.

"Thank you for that," Eglantine said with a small smile. "May I just call you Spencer or should I call you Reid like the others?"

"Whichever," Reid shrugged, sure she was going to go with calling him by his last name like everyone else but JJ did.

"Then, thank you for everything, Spencer," Eglantine said, startling Reid a bit and causing him to blush slightly at her sincere words. Reid nodded and looked down at her hand on his.


	18. Chapter 18

**Thank you Sue 1313 for reviewing! Reid is starting to warm up to her.**

**Thank you tannerose5 for reviewing! I'm glad people are liking Reid's act of bravery.**

Over the next few weeks, Reid began to come to Eglantine's home more often, occasionally without Morgan, and actually decided to talk to the young woman about various things in his life during private sessions with the kids banned from the living room and surrounding area while they talked. They mostly talked about his mother and his childhood, leading him to find out that she didn't really talk to her family and that she had been bullied for being the smart kid as well. It surprised him to no end that a family oriented woman like her wouldn't have contact with her family, but she explained that she and her mother had a falling out so she hadn't been in contact with her family since her mother was the center of her family. Reid wanted to ask more about why she wasn't in contact with them, but felt that the only way he could would be if he too talked about his family and he didn't want that at this moment. It also surprised him to find out that she had been bullied since she seemed like the type that would have people flocking around her uplifting and cheerful personality, but she assured him that she was far prettier now than she had been and she now had a tight reign on her temper unlike when she was a child. Reid failed to see how Eglantine had a temper, but he assumed that was where her 'tight reign' came into play.

As Eglantine was released from her cast about a week before Thanksgiving and allowed to move on her own again, she found that Reid seemed to hover around more than even Jarrel did. At first, she thought it was a bit strange, but cute how much of a mother hen he was turning into, but it quickly wore down her nerves and she found herself getting agitated with the light brunette man.

"Spencer," she said one morning as they saw the kids off to school before going into the office together now that he seemed okay with coming to breakfast with everyone if Eglantine had a pot of coffee ready for him. It took him surprisingly little persuasion to get her to make coffee against her rules of no caffeine in the house since he promised to come to breakfast and interact with everyone if she did. The older teens wanted to try some, but Jarrel was quick to enforce that none of the children have coffee since it could be addictive.

Reid looked to Eglantine curiously as he followed her to go clean up the breakfast mess before they headed out for the BAU's office. "Yes?"

Eglantine looked like she was going to ask something, but shook her head and smiled at him instead.

"What do you think of me coming along on a case with all of you?" Eglantine asked instead. Reid was taken aback slightly by the question before he quickly thought it over.

"You would give us fresh eyes on the cases we see, but I'm not sure the new section chief will allow it," Reid said slowly, trying to word his response correctly. "You aren't a trained agent after all."

"But I am a trained professional," Eglantine pointed out before she sighed and turned back to him with a smile. "Let's just forget about this. If we don't head out, you'll be late."

Reid nodded and followed after her to her van, thinking about the pros and cons of her coming along on cases with them. He even managed to block out the atrocious noise she called music most of the way to the BAU's headquarters. It wasn't until one of the songs actually had an ear piercing scream did he register just how loud she was playing the music. He jumped slightly and looked over at her in bewilderment to see her singing calmly along with the music that he was now registering as one of the many digital ones she played. Vocaloid if he remembered correctly from her explaining her love of Asian pop, especially that of the Japanese and Chinese variety. Reid couldn't understand a word of what the vocalists were saying, but she apparently could and sang along with the lyrics as if they were in English even if she was off key for much of it.

"What is this song about?" Reid asked as the song seemed to end. Eglantine glanced over at him before her eyes went back to the road, a small smile on her face.

"I don't think you should know that answer," she said as the next song began to play and Reid frowned at the upbeat song. After a moment of silence on his part, Eglantine sighed and glanced at him again. "The last one was called Onii Youkai and was about three girls wanting to essentially rape their brother. This one is about not caring for having a bad day."

"Th-They sound so happy though," Reid said in surprise as they pulled into the parking lot. Eglantine laughed as she parked and got out of the van along with him.

"That's most of Vocaloid for you. Sounds happy and cheerful, but is really about murder, death, and corruption," Eglantine said as they headed for the door together. "I'm surprised you don't know more about them with how many conventions you go to."

"I don't go to that many," Reid blushed slightly as he grumbled under his breath. Eglantine laughed softly as they showed their IDs to the guard and were waved through to the offices.

"I'm sure you don't," Eglantine said with a smile as they entered the elevator and was surprised to see JJ already in the elevator.

"There you two are," JJ said as if she had been waiting for the elevator just for them. "We have a case to get to."


End file.
